Our heaven of Angels
by djDJ
Summary: Post third impact. The world rebuilds itself. Shinji, a reborn NERVE and the others must come to terms with all that has changed around them as new forces emerge, some more terrible than those they replaced. ShinjiXsomebody HikariXTouji etc... Please R
1. Chapter 1

AN 

This first chapter might be a little confusing…but I swear it gets a lot better.

* * *

**Chapter 1: To Replace Tyrants**

_Oh Andy don't leave me…Ah don't worr- _

click

_that's right, and this modern marvel can be yours for just-_

click

…_the upcoming humanitarian awards mean more to the world this year than ever before. Shaken by the near apocalyptic events over a year ago, the free peoples of this earth have looked for heroes at every turn, in under a month the UN will give the annual award to the organ…_

click

Oh no, he'd heard quite enough of that over the past two weeks. A constant reminder of their worries…but all would hopefully be resolved by the end of tonight's court.

Leaning his head back on the massive sofa he once again changed the channel. There was always good news about…if one had the patience to find it.

…_After a year of turbulent trials, the central tribunal will finally pass judgment on SEELE top man Keel Lorenz within this month. _

_The German was apprehended along with other SEELE members and was tried for crimes against humanity and mass genocide. It was the SEELE organization that triggered the third impact over a year ago…an act that nearly caused the death of all humanity…_

The man smiled as he relaxed in his seat, his worries being eased, he turned the massive flat screen off and looked forward to a short nap.

But, as was common in life, his rest was short lived…as he began to submit to the dreariness within him, the sound of footsteps could be heard.

Looking up the man saw a nun enter the large living room. On having her presence acknowledged by the man the nun delivered the news she had received.

"The court has convened father, they await you're audience."

Nodding of the nun, the man slowly rose and entered his study. He wasn't perturbed in the least by the glass of champagne on his table. Sitting down, he pressed a small button near his telephone that activated the holographic telecommunication system.

Immediately the room fell dark. It took about fifteen seconds for the signal to connect. After the link had been established, he saw six others sitting in a perfect circle around him. Each person had a small holographic plaque before them with their name and region on it.

Looking at his own he felt rather dizzy. Then again he was reading it the wrong way…

His read

acirfA, kcolloP rehtaF

On hearing the opening prayer begin, he bowed his head.

"…and in God we trust, Amen"

"Amen!" the others all chanted in unison.

"A good prayer it was father, my thanks. And so the court of seven is convened."

The man speaking was Father Fiorenzo of Italy.

"Now may I raise my glass to all of you, god looks down upon us and he is proud, for it is we who will finally rid the world of the non believers that are SEELE."

There was a fair amount of murmuring and glass raising as the seven old men rejoiced in their victory.

"Yes and with the evidence we submitted to the tribunal, there is no chance that the old men will survive the sentence. A good fate for such sinners." Said the priest from Europe.

"True, over this year we have helped shut down SEELE, and the Marduk institute along with all its hundred and eight industrial fronts."  
Said another.

There was a great amount of murmuring in agreement and more champagne sipping.

"We have successfully erased every trace of the blasphemous sinners save for one."

The court went silent. Father Pollock took his head in his hands. He had known that there would be no evading the subject. Father Fiorenzo looked grim.

"The NERVE organization has completely outshone us over he year, people look to _them_ as saviors. This has been a source of outrage from the very beginning."

Everyone's gaze shifted towards father Pollock.

"My apologies father, but…if we were to make the people believe that instrumentality was genocidal in nature, well, we were forced to make NERVE out to be the people who stopped it…thus making them heroes to all."

"Do not use the word _us_ in such instances father!!" a priest from Russia boomed.

"This folly was completely of your doing."

Father Pollock bowed his head as the others silently nodded.

"Enough, we must give each other strength. In the end we were able to defeat the greater evil. Father Pollock may be forgiven."

Father Pollock's head shot up, a knowing smile on his face.

"We may rejoice for the Mecha project is near completion."

Once again the surprised looks picked up, murmurings began.

"Father Fiorenzo, if what you say is true then-"

"Yes father, and there is more, we have joining us, the head director of Phoenix corp., our organization that-as you all know-is in charge of constructing the Mechas."

The eager priests looked around the dark surroundings waiting for their unexpected guest. Father Pollock watched as Father Fiorenzo reached to the intercom on his desk and whispered into it.

Immediately an eighth member joined their circle. Sitting without a desk in front of him, they could all see him for what he was. He wore black gloves on his hands, a custom tailored suit about his shoulders. His face was digitally shadowed hiding his true form.

The plaque hung ominously in the air before him. It read:

Mr. Smith, Phoenix Corp.

"Gentlemen, this is Mr. Smith."

There was fervent nodding and gesturing as the priests greeted the man with uncertainty, being unsure as to whether he was even looking at them or not.

Taking of from Father Fiorenzo's short introduction, the man spoke. His tone was formal and cold.

"Thank you father. As you all have probably guessed, my name is not Mr. Smith. Even though I technically work for you fine gentlemen I would still like to maintain total anonymity. My secretary has spoken to father Fiorenzo and father Pollock on various occasions. No doubt all of you know what the Mecha project is."

After ensuring that the nods were confident enough he went on.

"You all will be pleased to know that the project is progressing extremely well. At present we are a whole month ahead of schedule, in fact we plan to deliver the first ten Mechas to you within the month."

It seemed good news was the flavor of the month. Father Pollock smiled,

_'Sweet vindication, the lord favors me.'_

Father Fiorenzo was pleased as well.

"The time is at hand my brothers, soon we shall complete our grand plan to attain divine greatness."

"What are the specifications of the Mechas at present?" another priest asked.

"The final version of the Mechas run on altered S2 engines, we have enabled them to run at 0.1 higher efficiency than their NERVE counterparts. We are also using blank dummy plugs, their human personalities are at a minimum."

"What? How do the dummy plugs function without, at least the image of, human mental images?"

"The dummy plugs run on minimum mental functions. This allows us to replace artificial intelligence with developmental or programmed intelligence. In short, the Mechas are reduced to zombies, making them more receptive to ordersand less...independent."

Father Pollock found himself getting bored as he heard the court clear their doubts about the project. He had read the reports inside out; he knew all there was to know.

Finally, just as he felt sleep taking him again, Father Fiorenzo spoke in conclusion.

"In a few days, we shall submit our application to be handed into the UN, when they see our exemplary record they shall have no choice but to accept us for the rebirth program. And we shall be a step closer to defeating the final limb of the legacy of sin that was SELLE and its actions. In god we trust. Amen."

"Amen." Father Pollock chanted with the rest. Slowly each priest left the conference eventually leaving behind a chuckling Mr. Smith.

"Ha, that is amusing. Boy, we are a virtuous bunch…"

* * *

AN

Don't worry if there are any plot holes. Hopefully they'll all get filled up by the end…hopefully.

We'll start seeing some familiar faces next chapter, please R&R


	2. We change, we discover…

**Chapter 2: We change, we discover…**

…_March 24__th__…2002…_

_Initiating re-binding experiment. Harmonizing chamber zero two ready, LCL submersion complete…_

…_Introducing subject T.G into the chamber…_

The woman stared on, looking down a near fifty meters below her, she saw the subject being lowered into the tank of LCL. None of this sat well with her, but what had to be done…had to be done.

Looking behind her she saw the entire ops center spread out before her. At least a dozen technicians labored away at computer workstations, several superior officers had come to oversee the re-binding, the image of a triangle with seven eyes on the lapels of their suits.

Behind them she saw two smaller figures standing hand in hand…she was unsure as to whether she was comfortable with the two being here.

She was snapped back to reality by the announcements on the P.A system.

_Harmonizing rods in place, awaiting clearance._

The woman picked up the microphone before her and spoke,

"Clearance approved. Begin forced induction of subject's AT field."

Far below several large cables were attached to the subjects extremities.

_Connection link established, inductor cables in place._

"Begin"

The low hum of electricity now filled their ears. Far below the subject began thrashing wildly, trying desperately to free itself. After a short length of time, a dull glow began to form around the subject.

"Induction successful. We have AT field generation from the subject." A technician sounded.

"Very good. Proceed as planed. Artificial AT field level at ten percent." Said the woman in reply.

The rods now began revolving around the subject within the LCL tank.

"Harmonization ratios rising. All levels within safety range."

The artificial AT field generation was raised to 50, nothing wrong so far.

"All right, raise AT field generation to a hundred percent. Lets get this over with."

The rods spun faster and faster around the subject. All was going well until…

"Harmonizing levels of balance. Levels crossing into critical zones."

There was now the low rumble of growing panic spreading across the room.

"Reduce AT field levels. Alter synch ratio by 0.001!!" the woman boomed.

"No change captain. Its n- oh god!!!"

"What is it?"

"Harmonizing ratios are inverting. Massive AT field generation detected. Monitors are off the charts!!!"

"Fuck!!! The ratios weren't properly calibrated."

"Captain!!! We are unable to contain the energy. We could just have triggered the third impa-"

"Silence lieutenant! We are just fine!! This is a minor flaw; we were warned that this could happen. Flood the lower levels with Bakelite immediately."

_Commencing introduction of phenol resin into LCL chamber._

"No use, the energy is still spreading. We have a new AT field!! Readings off the charts."

"W-what! That's it, evacuate immediately. Code red, begin quarantine procedures immediately, Isaac run… "

* * *

…_July 2017…_

Clap clap clap clap!!!

Beads of sweat threatened to appear on his forehead, he wasn't used to being in the spotlight…well not quite this way.

Looking at all the suits, dresses jewelry and what not Gendo thought only one thing.

'_They're being paid far to much.'_

He wasn't one for speeches…sadly for him they came with the job. Looking down to his left he saw Fuyutsuki staring up at him looking amused as he sat beside Gendo's standing form. Taking a deep breath, he began his speech.

"Almost seven years ago we saw the birth of NERV. It was created with one sole purpose, to protect humanity. Post third impact many questioned our re-emergence into the world, but I say, that today, we are as important as the day we fought the third angel. Today we stand to once again to help humanity, to further its cause, to enrich the very life we live. Today we have built wonders for the world."

Gendo was pleased at his little pun.

"Today I raise my glass to NERV…for today we have made a difference."

The speech was followed by rapturous applause. Even today, much of the NERV elite found themselves unsettled by Commander Ikari's sudden change of attitude. Today's party was in celebration of NERV winning the UN's humanitarian award. The official presentation ceremony had been last night leading to a substantial reduction in the financial assets of the female employees…due to expenditure on dresses.

"Boooooring." Asuka whined as she sat with the other children.

"This party sucks. Why are we here anyway."

"Oh come on Asuka, were here to celebrate all our achievements. Don't you feel good about all the people you've helped."

"Oh boy, you're as sad as they are third child. All we do here is build stuff and prevent minor fights."

"Just as expected, she needs chaos to live…being the devil and all." Touji said while shifting his chair a good few feet in the other direction.

They'd each been permitted to get one friend with them so Kensuke and Hikari had come along as well. Touji himself had been re-designated as the fourth child after NERV's reemergence.

"Baka!! You guys are just jealous that I have the highest synch ratio among all of you." Asuka retorted.

"Sure devil child sure. At least we're dunk on jealousy, unlike you."

Asuka shot Touji a look of pure death.

"Shut up fourth child, I'm not drunk, I never get drunk…and definitely not on this wine stuff."

Only Asuka seemed to be comfortable with drinking in front of the adults…and the adults saw it normal for only Asuka to drink.

"You mean you were sober the time you walked into the boys changing room."

Every one burst into laughter at Shinji's comment as Asuka buried her head in her arms.

"Shut up third child!! You're supposed to be on my side."

"S-sorry." Shinji said hesitantly.

Asuka groaned as she lightly smacked her head.

"Uhh you're so tame. And anyway, that wasn't my fault. I was a little drowsy…a-and that stupid first child got me confused. And I know she did it on purpose!!!"

Everyone kept laughing as Touji gave Rei a big smack on her back, a small smile on the usually reserved girl's lips.

Yes there had been some major changes after the third impact. Gendo had resolved to change his ways and had become more…caring. Asuka had become a little nicer-she called Rei by her name more often than just 'doll' now-Shinji was becoming more assertive and Rei, more outgoing. Well the changes were all…relative.

"Hey who's that?" Kensuke cut through the laughter and pointed to a man dancing with Dr.Akagi.

He was about as tall as she was and wore a white tux. Two of his most notable features were his shoulder long hair and his van dyke beard.

"Oh him." Asuka said with a dreamy look in her eyes. "You've never seen him before."

"That's Edward." Interrupted Shinji, "He's been with us for about six months now. He comes with us when we go overseas for missions and looks after us while we're at NERV."

"His rank is captain, he's the sub-commander of operations under Major Katsuragi. He is only four years older than all of us." Rei completed…

"You know, the children are staring at us."

"Ehhh, that girl's always staring at me…it's so wrong." Edward replied.

"You sound like you enjoy it, she's only fifteen you know."

"Wow, you think very little of me don't you, Mom."

"What was that."

"Mmmmmm, that smells good Dr.Akagi, what is it, rose?"

"Well done Edward, you're safe."

Ritsuko watched as a very tipsy Misato drag poor Hyojo behind her as she headed for the bar. As she passed by Edward sniffed the air.

"Mmmmm that smells like…"

"Its lavender Edward, she wears it all the time." Ritsuko helped,

"I was thinking of beer, she wears that a lot too."

Edward broke away from the good doctor and headed towards the table where all the children were sitting. Dancing with colleagues was plain unsettling.

"Wow, you children look bored."

"I'm not a child." Asuka pouted.

"Yes…that's true, you're actually drunk."

They all laughed as Edward accepted a high five from Touji.

"Speaking of which, you guys know that's the secret to get through these big adult things."

"What!!" they all chanted in unison.

"Why get drunk of course."

It was almost amusing to see how all their faces fell at once; even Rei seemed to droop the slightest.

"We can't drink." Hikari interrupted, finally getting to speech after simply staring at Edward for a few minutes.

"Why not??"

"The adults won't stand for it." Rei answered indifferently as everyone save Asuka nodded in agreement.

Ann odd smile spread across Edward's face as he heard this.

"Ah that's where you guys are wrong. See, it's all about the vicious cycle of self imploding perception."

"The cycle of s-" the rest of their chant was too garbled and varying to discern anything, it was safe to say, Edward had their attention.

"Exactly, look, Asuka drinks but no one says anything. That's not because she's allowed to drink at you guys are not, I mean she's the same age as you. See she can drink because others see her drinking as normal, thus she fells normal to drink in front of others, thus the it is reaffirmed in others minds that she can drink on so she drinks more…and so on. Now in you're case, you think people think you can't drink, when actually you can. But now when you don't drink people think that you don't drink so you feel bad at the thought of drinking. Thus people now are surer of the fact that you don't drink. Then the start making those jokes about you drinking which furthers the weirdness felt when you do entertain the notion of drinking and so on and on…get it."

The lot of them stared at his blankly. Asuka's head dropped onto the table.

"Ah its ok, I didn't get half of that either. Just remember kids, always appear to understand at least half of what you say…that way you'll never be the biggest moron in a room…cheers."

Edward now slowly rose from his seat.

"Well, I have to go help the good major out…or else…well who knows. Be good kids, remember don't drink and d…pilot Eva."

"Does that effect the synch." Asuka suddenly asked.

"Hmm, that's a good question. I think it was done once before. When they combined alcohol, being completely smashed and big robots what did they get? Oh yea, they got RahXephon!"

"Wha."

"It was an anime the had on TV, you post second impact kids just wont get it."

With that he walked away. In his place they saw Gendo and Yui Ikari heading their way. Immediately Shinji's head shot from left to right, desperately searching for a way out. Seeing that he was trapped he looked for the only escape.

**BANG **

Shinji's head bounced off the table as he misjudged the distance. Readjusting, he successfully hid beneath the table amidst the laughter of his friends.

Smoothly Gendo sat down as Yui stood beside him.

"Where's our son?" she asked catching on to Shinji's antics, but there was no fooling Gendo.

"Shinji, get out from under the table."

**BANG **

Shinji emerged slowly, rubbing his head. "Hello father, hi mom."

Yui beamed back at him as Gendo continued to speak.

"Why do you all look so…dead?"

Silence, they were still used to the oddly cold Gendo Ikari, this was just weird.

"Oh come on, there just bored. Just let them go, Edward was ready to drop them off, anyway, by the looks of it he'll have to take Major Katsuragi home."

"Yes, I guess th-guah!!"

Gendo recoiled as Yui gently smacked him as he was reverting to his usual posture of placing his interlocked fingers before his face.

"I told you to break that habit."

"S-sorry Yui."

After seeing the children and Major Katsuragi off with Edward (they needed to borrow a NERV bus.) Gendo attended to more important news. Going up above all the festivities in his home, Gendo entered his personal office on the top floor of the estate. Entering the room he passed Yui's desk (he enjoyed having her work along with him).

There he saw pinned up against the wall, newspaper clippings of all the events preceding the third impact…

…_NERV emerges from the ashes…_

…_Green Eva's: the future's saviors…_

…_NERV introduced into the UN re-birth program: help in rebuilding the world…_

…_SEELE top men arrested…_

…_Keel Lorenz gets death sentence…_

…_Eva's finish help building the seven wonders…_

Gendo smiled, this was Yui's favorite. The picture that went with it was absolutely hilarious.

It was the newly completed Taj Mahal, each of the four MP Eva's (Manually piloted) stood by each of the wonders four pillars giving big 'thumbs up's'

Moving to his desk, he was pleased to see the information he had requested on the table. Opening the file he began reading its contents. When he was done...he felt weak…

* * *

Edward stared up at the starry sky; he had no intention of going home.

_'Only bad memories there'_

Taking another drag of the cigarette, he felt the herbs rise to his head.

'Shigeru Aoba…thank you, you really have some top quality stuff.'

As he felt the intoxication taking effect he heard a voice in his head speak to him…

'_Where do we go Valcos…who are we…who are you…'_

* * *

AN: there is nothing such as the vicious cycle of self-imploding perception.

The chapters are kinda fluffy right now coz we're getting into the story. The hard core screwed up pseudo philosophy/action will all come in good time.

I know that RahXephon actually aired in 2001, thus the children could have sen it, but well what the…

Please R&R

**TO MY CRITICS**

Fifth Horsemen:

Thanx man, I need all reviews I can get. The chapters will keep getting longer.

You're a metal head huh, cool, ever heard of Dream theater.

Ginny:

Well hello again. If you get lost in the story at any point just ask. Oh BTW

THEY PUT Inuyasha BACK ON AIR WOOOHOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Peace out.


	3. To Build a World with our Hands

**Chapter 3: To Build a World with our Hands **

_…The NERV special will be arriving shortly, all employees please ensure that your security cards are at the ready, passengers without cards will be withheld from boarding. Please step behind the yellow…_

Four figures passed through various stringent security checks before entering the bright blue train. On stepping inside, the three head technicians were surprised to see their Major near passed out on one of the seats.

Cicadas chirped, the birds sang…the air was heavy with the scent of a fresh day. Sadly, none of the morning's vibrancy had rubbed off on the NERV employees.

"Good morning Major." The three chanted, trying there best to get the words out without falling asleep.

"Guh, huh wha…oh, good morning. What are you guys doing here." Mumbled a barely moving Misato.

"We were called for duty last night as well, I think the Panama project's been postponed." Hyuga said whilst smiling bashfully.

"Don't you have a car Misato?" Ritsuko asked as she sat down beside the good major. Hyuga Maya and Shigeru all found seats opposite them.

"Oh, morning Rit-chan, yeah…well you know how it is, after last night Edward suggested that I take the train."

"And you agreed." Ritsuko was taken aback by her friend's submissiveness.

"No." grumbled Misato, her form slumping again.

"…he stole my keys."

Last night, towards the end of the festivities, deputy commander Fuyutsuki had announced that the top NERV personnel were required to come to work early next morning. This resulted in the usually packed NERV special to be completely deserted as the lower level employees all had a well-deserved sleep in.

Maya stared silently out the window as her two superiors continued with their morning banter. Outside, neo Tokyo passed them by in all its beauty.

"I wonder how it got this way."

"Huh, what are you talking about Maya?" Aoba asked as he looked out in the direction of her gaze.

"Neo-Tokyo, well it wasn't like this when the third impact happened, and…i-it just happened to be like this afterwards."

"That's not true Maya, much of the city is still under construction, it wasn't exactly like this." Interrupted Hyuga as he looked over Aoba's shoulder.

"That's not what I mean. It was all destroyed before the third impact, afterwards it was all…fine, we didn't have to rebuild most of the city, it was just…there."

"We don't discuss these things to often."

The three jumped at the stern tone of the Major. It seemed her and Ritsuko had abandoned their chat for this one.

"Major Katsuragi's right. Till date we've found no scientific explanation for the restructuring of the world post third impact. We just grew to accept it."

"Oh."

Maya's tone was a little let down. Ritsuko's words seemed to have put a sudden end to all their conversation. After a small expectant silence the five resigned themselves to watching to lush green meadows that were the Tokyo outskirts whiz past them.

They were all snapped out of their small moment of thoughtful introspection by the steady slowing down of the train.

Far ahead, massive re-enforced doors slid apart to allow the train to pass into the NERV compound. Due to various changes, NERV had been transformed into a vast spread of buildings and laboratories above ground rather than below, the main reason for this being the lack of a Geofront.

Also, NERV was now responsible for much of the municipal maintenance of Tokyo-3 and most of Japan, thus a new need for transparency had arisen. The compound was now littered with several administrative offices and what not among the usual research and development stations.

But some parts of NERV still remained subterranean …

Stepping of the train, the five were made to move through yet another set of security checks before getting on a small bus that had been waiting for them.

"You have to admit though, the new NERV's got a much more…I don't know…lively feel to it." Misato said as she threatened to lie down on the last seat of the bus.

"Sure, but where you and I work it's the same as always." Ritsuko quickly replied.

The others sighed in agreement as the bus continued its journey towards a small building in the heart of the compound.

Brrrrrring…

Misato's phone went of was they were getting off the small shuttle.

"Major Katsuragi speaking."

She answered the call while slipping her clearance card through the censors with the others and entering the heavy elevator doors that had opened before them. The building was actually simply an elevator station that transported NERV employees to the lower levels.

"Oh, good morning deputy commander Fuyutsuki…yes…yes the children are currently at school…yes…"

The group hustled out of the cramped space as the elevator finally reached its lowest level. As they walked towards their work area they passed by a large golden plague they had seen many times, it read:

_New Central Dogma, NERV_

"…yes, I'll send for the children after school's over…yes sir…it shall be done sir…goodbye sir."

Putting her cell phone back in her pocket Misato looked back at all the expectant faces of the others.

"Ah, we better get cracking…we've got a lot of work to do today."

* * *

Clouds brushed against the lush green plains. Low hills rose and fell beyond. Lighting his third cigarette, Edward leaned back against the side of the black sedan and marveled at the scenic beauty of the Lower Yangtze Valley region. He wore simple back pants and a white shirt under his red NERV jacket with his badge stitched to his collar…his usual uniform. 

'_Still on call'_ he thought craning his neck as he checked if anyone had emerged on the other side from the front seat of the car. As he turned he saw the compound wall behind them, UN markings about it every few meters. Seeing no one emerging from the car in the near future, Edward went back to gazing at the countryside and his cigarette.

Their current location, the UN Asian headquarters, was located five miles northeast of the city of Shanghai. It lay between the two cities of Nanjing and Shanghai in the Jiangsu province south of the Yangtze River. He had come as Yui's escort; she was here to give her presentation on the green Eva project. The project had been ongoing since the Eva's were commissioned over six months ago. Today Yui was merely giving the UN a status report and future plans for the extremely successful project.

_Clang_

Edward turned slowly to see a figure emerge from the front seat of he car. Standing up, deputy commander Fuyutsuki smoothly pocketed the cell phone he'd just been using.

"Grim news Edward." He said facing the young captain.

"What is it this time?" came an exasperated reply

"The Panama project's been preponed by a week, I've just informed Major Katsuragi."

"What!! That's crazy, why would they do that?"

"The funds went dry so the French contractors packed up and left. We're going to have to finish the project on are own, thus it was preponed to allow its completion on schedule."

Edward let out a sigh,

"You know I still don't see why we have to use the manually piloted Evas for this kind of stuff."

"You know all too well why, the auto piloted Evas are used only for raw work; security, lifting heavy objects etcetera."

Edward nodded,

"Right, well we can have the Evas transported to Panama within six hours. I can take them down there as soon as required."

"That's all right. It will be better if the children travel along with their Evas."

Nodding in agreement, Edward pulled out his phone and made a few calls.

"Hello, yes this is Captain Edward Valcos of NERV speaking, I need a pick up at about…"

Turning away from the captain, Fuyutsuki bent down and peered into the back seat of the sedan. He smiled as he gazed upon Yui's sleeping form as she sat, head back against the rest, flash cards littered every here and there.

"I've made all the arrangements, I'll take a car to Shanghai after were done here, from there it's a jet to Tokyo and a chopper straight to HQ."

Fuyutsuki nodded as he stood up once again. Acknowledging the deputy commander's approval, Edward spoke again…he had a lot he had to get of his chest.

"Hey Kozo."

"Yes Edward."

"Why am I accompanying Yui, doesn't commander Ikari usually do that, I mean he usually goes with her alone, why have you and I been dragged along?"

Fuyutsuki walked around to the other side of the car and leaned against it beside Edward.

"Security"

"Wh-"

"The Fujian uprising is still pretty heated. The Republic of China is still unwilling to come to terms with the Peoples Republic. Thought the fighting is far away, there have been several incidents of attempted bombings and terrorism. You're here as Yui's personal escort."

"Great, I'm a glorified bodyguard."

"Hm, that's one way of putting it. Gendo was just accompanying her in the beginning, but after last nights news he called me along. We were to make a stop here so Gendo could have his say…but again, due to security reasons I was disallowed from accompanying him."

They were currently at the head office for the UN in Asia, after this they would go to the sub-office of the UNDP for Yui's presentation.

"You think he'll get his way."

"What?"

"You know, you think the UN committee will swing his way."

"I doubt it Edward, I doubt they'll even grant him audience, the officials here will probably turn him down right away. You've read their file haven't you?"

"I read it on the plane yes." Edward replied.

"It speaks for itself, I doubt anything Gendo can say will make the UN change its decision."

"It will clash with the commander's plans…won't it."

Fuyutsuki was silent for a long time…a very long time.

"I'm quite sure his plans are the root of this entire outburst."

The silence crept in once again; neither said a word as they both went back to gazing into the distance.A train could be heard in the distance as Edward lit his fourth.

"Could I tempt you with one." Edward spoke while offering the deputy commander his pack.

"No thank you Edward, you know don't smoke."

"Hmm, yeah I know, I'm not a tobacco man either…prefer a more herbal taste…but then again, times are tense."

Words again spent, only silence found its way to their lips. For a long time neither of them even moved.

"Why am I in the loop?" Edward broke he silence again.

"I beg you're pardon?"

"Why was I informed about Gendo's plans, more importantly…why is Major Katsuragi…my superior, not informed about this."

Fuyutsuki let out a low sigh, but no reply came from his lips.

"Sir, I do not ask that Major Katsuragi be let in, I just want to know why I have been included."

Edward gave his head a flick, allowing the wind to catch his hair and take it out of his eyes. Fuyutsuki looked away from the man and replied.

"Though you are young…you have seen and been through a great deal more than most of us."

Edward continued to stare at his superior silently.

"Though the Major is more than competent at what she does, sadly…she lacks the emotional girth for such decisions."

Edwards mouth hung open…he had no excuse for this, it was true that Misato was fairly unstable outside the operations center.

"A fair point sir, but I know that's not the real reason. Emotional competence is not enough to merit inclusion into such…epic…plans."

Fuyutsuki's eyebrows arched, Edward's sudden formal tone didn't go undetected.

"You know exactly why you were included Edward."

The young captain bit back a sarcastic laugh. That's what he'd wanted, to hear the truth from his lips.

"Yes of course, how could I forget. I see now that my inclusion was not out of respect for my decisions…but merely out of pity."

Edward took a quick drag before continuing.

"I see know that I was not brought on board so that I could judge the situation fairly. But in truth it was just the opposite. I was brought on so that I could vote Gendo's way. He must have been unsure of your vote, so he brought me along so that I would surley go his way."

"Yui admires your judgment, that was good enough for me and Gendo. In the end, you did support our decision."

The comment seemed to deflate Edward just a little, but he retorted with confidence.

"Does Yui know of these plans?"

But the reply wasn't quite what he expected.

"Yes."

"Wha!!"

"She agrees with Gendo's reasoning…she thinks it's for the best."

Edward's shoulders slumped as he nodded in submission.

"You know, you've always been held in high regard in her ey- ." Fuyutsuki began but was cut off when he turned to see Commander Ikari walking through the heavy UN gates towards the car.

"We better get moving."

Nodding Edward walked around the car and held the door open for the commander. Giving the captain a curt little nod Gendo reentered the car and sat down beside Yui's waking form. Walking around and into the drivers seat Edward revved the engine and took off down the road towards the UNDP sub-office, all thoughts of the earlier conversation being forgotten…

* * *

brrrrrring 

Nothing sounded more invigorating than the final bell. Children, who all day were seen fighting loosing battles with consciousness, were now bouncing off the walls…nothing said 'fun' more than he end of school after a long day. It was no less of the four evangelion pilots and their two friends.

"Ahh, come on Shinji, what do ya wana do today." Touji asked eager for a response.

"Erm…I don't know."

"Oh come on, we have to do something, I'm in no mood to go home." Kensuke whined.

The bunch continued to argue all the way down the road leading away from the school. Second child Asuka Langley Soryu had been walking behind the boys, in step with Hikari and alarmingly…Rei.

"Hmpf, I bet they're planning something really stupid…no doubt they'll try and ditch us." The fiery German whined.

"Ikari-kun wouldn't leave us." Rei added unresponsively.

"Ohhhhhhh sure, I'd expect you to defend the twerp. But then again you're right, that first child's too spineless to stand up against us."

"Oh chill out Asuka, we're all bored, they're just looking for some fun."

"Yeah well I'll tell you what I'm looking for, I'm looking for some lunch!!"

The boys suddenly turned around on hearing Asuka's sudden outburst.

"Well of course I'm hungry you morons. Shinji forgot to make our lunches…you all should be to."

Post third impact, Misato had been given a much larger apartment by NERV…just more space to junk…but also, on principal, all the Eva pilots were designated to stay with her. This placed the burden of food preparation solely on Shinji and because of yesterday's late night…he'd been unable to prepare lunch for any of them.

"You know, for once I gotta side with hell girl here, I am pretty hungry."

"Wha!!!" Sinji's jaw almost dropped as Touji completely betrayed him on the spot.

"Ha third child!!! Oh how the mighty have fallen. I bet even Rei agrees with me." Asuka jibed while nudging Rei in the ribs.

The blue haired pilot was silent, but a solitary hand on her stomach was indication enough of her allegiance.

So it was agreed that they would go and find something to eat, either that or it was death…not by starvation…but nagging on Asuka's part. But all thoughts of food and merriment were thrown out the window when-on turning around-Shinji noticed a black sedan driving up towards them.

"I think Edward's come to pick us up for something."

Everyone turned around, a renewed spring in their step at hearing the news. Even Hikari seemed exited to meet the man she'd only briefly seen the other night…much to Touji's curiosity.

But once again all, thoughts of entertainment were extinguished from their minds when the car drove to a halt right beside them.

Even Rei's usually still face formed a slight frown when the man emerging from the drivers seat was not the bouncy energetic Edward they knew but a dull-slightly balding-NERV security official.

"Huh, what's this? Where's Edward?" Touji demanded.

"Captain Valcos is away on official NERV work with commander Ikari."

"He's gone with my father?" Shinji asked slightly surprised at the idea. Some how the thought of his father and Edward sitting down to have sake was plain disturbing. Then again, both his father and Edward were strange men...very strange men.

"Affirmative." The muscle replied, "The Eva pilots are requested to follow me, we must go to Central Dogma immediately…synch tests."

"What!!"

"Oh great, just like them to ruin our fun." The lot complained.

"I'm sorry, we must leave immediately."

"What about Hikari and Kensuke." Rei asked among the protests.

The guard stared at the two for a long time. The others also calmed down and looked on, demanding an answer from the official.

"It shall be a tight squeeze but I shall drop them off at their respective homes."

Shinji thanked the guard and the group stuffed themselves into the car, however unfair life at NERV may get, the pilots new better than to disobey formal orders.

The journey was-as the security official said-'a tight squeeze'. Kensuke and Shinji had bunched up in the front seat as Touji sat in the back with Rei Hikari and, to his dismay, Asuka.

"Ah, S-Shinji…you're really heavy for such a…t-thin guy." Kensuke gasped

"Come on Kensuke chill out, at least you're not sitting with-"

"Oh shut up Touji, you don't fool us, you just want to take advantage of us." Asuka quickly cut in.

"Wha!! Why would I want to be anywhere…"

The car took a left and drove down a long avenue with massive trees on either side casting cool shadows on the asphalt.

"Um, sir, Kensuke's house was a right." Shinji finally spoke after numerous prods from his 'chair-ish' friend.

"We are already two minutes behind schedule, I will drop your two friends as per their direction after you have safely boarded the train."

"Sheesh, you guys are so uptight about everything, I mean why worry so much, I don't even need synch tests I just do it to remind everyone that I'm the-HEY WATCH IT!!!"

Hikari screamed the last bit of Asuka's sentence in unison.

"Wha!!" but it was too late for Touji

**SMACK!!**

Even Rei took the liberty of teaching the fourth child a lesson.

"Bwa!!, Hik…Devi…REI!! What was that for." Touji screamed as Kensuke and Shinji almost caused the man to throw the car of the road because they were laughing so hard.

"You were rude." Rei replied.

"B-but, I didn't do anything…really Hikari I'm innocent." Touji screamed looking for anny support as Hikari went a bright red.

"Oh, shut up Touji…and Hikari stop deflating like that, its pathetic…I know exactly what you were trying you perv." But Touji was given no time to retort.

CWACK!!!

The whole car seemed to jump in shock.

"W-what was that." Kensuke mumbled under Shinji.

"I'm sorry sir," the man said reaching back, his arm groping the seat where Asuka had been sitting, 'had' because at present, she was sitting atop an unperturbed Rei whom she'd jumped on seconds earlier in shock.

After a short struggle, the man's hand found its target; a small handle buried deep in the cushioning of the seat. Pulling on it, Hikari's eyes went wide as a part of the back seat was dreaged open and Pen Pen's head appeared from the boot.

"Hey what's he doing here?" Shinji questioned over screams of 'see it wasn't me, you sick bast…'

"The pet was feeling unwell…so Major Katsuragi requested that I take it to the vet after transporting you."

"Oh I see, she usually bullies Edward to do such menial jobs, but now that he's not here…she's got you doing her dirty work huh." Asuka probed.

The official said nothing, a bead of sweat appearing on his forehead. Luckily the security officer was saved from any further embarrassment by the arrival of their destination…the train station.

The four Eva pilots were waved goodbye to Hikari and Kensuke…and the guard, when a thought struck Shinji.

"Hey Touji."

"Wha."

"In the back seat, Rei was sitting at the window, then Asuka then you then Hikari on the other side…b-but…Pen Pen was stuck behind Rei and Asuka…so how did Hi-"

"Ah Shinji, you put too much thought into these things…w-we have synch tests to worry about."

Touji completed after putting his arm around Shinji and nearly dragging him into the azure train.

* * *

'_The world…the world destroyed…to rebuild the world…we rebuild the world…a better tomorrow…we dream of a better tomorrow…'_

Rei sat quietly beside the other three pilots, her mind still tingling after synch. They all were fairly tiered. Each one of them leaned against the back rest and began submitting to a sleep a long time coming…all except Asuka of course, who believed she had done the best in today's test. 'Believed' because Dr.Akagi had stopped giving out the test results (to prevent similar nasty incidents that occurred before the third impact.)

"Ok" Misato boomed as the pilots snapped to attention. Synch tests were over but the children still needed to be de-briefed on the situation at hand.

"There's a change of plan. We're leaving tonight."

"What!!!" they all chanted…Rei included.

"You can't do that, I…we need our sleep, how can we pilot Eva I-"

"Captain Valcos and me mutually decided it was for the best, you'll be informed on the situation tomorrow on site. Don't worry, most of the stuff just needs to be put in place, the operation should take about a week." Said Misato cutting Asuka short.

"You terrorized him into agreeing with you didn't you Misato-san." Shinji groaned.

"What nonsense." Misato smiled. "Why I just…persuaded him into it, he's very considerate and respects my judgment."

"Did the 'considerate' captain return _your_ car keys Misato?" Ritsuko jibed.

"Dam it!! Oh when I get my hands on h…"

"Now now Major."

"Huh…you're right Rit-chan…it was all for the best. C'mon you lot, lets go home, we can take m…the train" Misato finished with clenched jaw and balled fist...

As they rode the familiar train back home, Rei once again sank into her own mind.

_'to dream…I have dreams…once I didn't dream…I don't remember not dreaming…I remember knowing I didn't dream…I do not remember…not dreaming…what are dreams…what am I…who…who am I…'_

* * *

AN: KEEP THE REVIEWS COMING...its all we've got. 

_'Till date we've found no scientific explanation for the restructuring of the world post third impact. We just grew to accept it'_………that line is not to cover up one of the major plot holes in the story, there is a reason for this…it shall be disclosed at a later time, that's all.

I added the relationship's etc just to get more people into this…initially it was al supposed to be left out, yes I'm shallow. Thank you for reading.

Sorry for the delay, I had to do a lot of reshuffling in the story…I just added/greatly altered one of the subplots so things had to be introduced now…other things had to be thrown out for later use etc. Next chapter will shed some light on some of the stuff in this chapter…only some…it also starts getting weird after this…really weird.

To the critics

**The Fifth:**

Thanx for all the constructive c. really appreciate it. And hope you don't mind 'OC's because I tend to create a lot of them to give stories some depth. I've tried to cut down on this one…but it could get out of control.

'Egad'…wow, I respect you more just for that man, classic…(not an insult in any way)

**Gin:**

OOOOOhhhhhhh so it's MY side of the world now is it…that's rich…not good enough for the west am I!!!

Actually I don't care, its all good for me, as long as you have anime I could go to the South Pole and live out my life.

I am honored that you are reading my story in spite…blah blah blah. If the story really doesn't interest you…you don't have to put your self through hell to read it (but its super cool that you are anyway!!!).


	4. Welcome To the Machine

**Chapter 4: Welcome To the Machine**

"Hmpf, to think that Ikari could make the U.N hesitate for even a second." The English was sickly Russian.

"Correct father Zukhov, Ikari could never attempt to tarnish our perfect reputations. Huh, he though that could create a world of his own making…" replied a voice with a French twist.

Father Pollock sat twiddling his thumbs as he sat at his designated place. The court of seven had been meeting rather often these days…not out of friendship of course, by all means not…the court's plans had fallen on somewhat…hard times.

"Enough!"

Heads turned in unison as Father Fiorenzo's voice cut through all the senseless talk about their solitary victory over Gendo Ikari.

"Enough of this…pompous glory marching."

His voice was lined with pure disgust.

"But father, the U.N's sub office in Asia officially rejected Gendo's claims against us, it was obvious from the time he lodged them two weeks ago…but to hear it from the papers just gives it new life."

"Fair enough father Zukhov, but such trivial conquests are all eclipsed by last weeks debacle."

Heads drooped as the words left Father Fiorenzo's lips.

"That embarrassment has cost us…who knows how it has hampered our plans. Even this little victory of yours has cost us dearly."

Father Pollock began massaging his temples; he'd been through this discussion with the Italian bishop already.

"Don't you see, Gendo Ikari was raised on a mighty pedestal by our own hands…"

Several heads turned towards Father Pollock.

"Well we have father-"

"I shall not stand for any more finger pointing" Father Pollock exploded like the calm of the storm before the bishop from china.

"If you wish to accuse me of some crime the by all means I shall seek my judgment before god. Otherwise make peace with what has happened and look to solutions to our many trials."

The court was silent…after a safe period of silence father Fiorenzo spoke.

"You might see Gendo's words being turned down as our victory…but it has wounded us more than you can know."

An inquisitive silence followed his words. But it was to be a mere pause as the bishop continued.

"Gendo carries a lot of political weight, the world sees him as a savior. When he speaks…people listen. Even if the U.N turned him down, it does not mean that they didn't pay attention to what he said. I am sure we have been under scrutiny ever since…and the incident seven days ago will not go unnoticed. We need to try and get back on track."

"The error lies in the puppet master system."

Some of the Bishops almost fell of their seats. Father Pollock's head snapped up as he saw the holographic image of Mr. Smith take shape.

"Y-you, last weeks mockery was your fault!!" the American Bishop sounded.

"Please, here me out, there were a few bugs in the last system…some conceptual flaws. We are currently testing our third version of our new liquid puppet master system, it will be retrofitted in all subsequent Mecha deliveries." The head of Phoenix Corp. quickly replied.

"How are we sure that this…program of yours wont glitch again?"

Father Pollock pressed the exec for answers; such mistakes could not be made twice.

"Please father, I know my credibility is fairly weak, but you must have…oh how would you put it…faith."

"You have gone public with this technology?"

Father Fiorenzo sounded slightly irritated.

"Now father please, don't get me wrong. No one out there can touch this stuff. It is way ahead of its time. Even those brains at NERV couldn't dream of creating anything close to our stuff. Anyway, I feel that the publicity will leave people with a little hope that all is not lost."

There were murmurs of agreement all around; even Father Fiorenzo seemed pleased.

"Mr. Smith."

"Yes father Pollock"

"How are you paying for all this?"

Though none of them could see, all the bishops were sure there was a wide sheepish grin across Mr. Smith's face. Rubbing his gloved hands together, it was clear that Mr. Smith had been waiting for this.

"Well, actually this project is extremely expensive. And if you don't make some of your other front organizations give us some rather large donations…well Phoenix will report major losses for this quarter, that won't do well for share prices and all that."

Father Fiorenzo nodded.

"We shall se what we can do. We shall await the new Mechas with eager anticipation."

Mr. Smith politely bowed his head and promptly left the conversation. This time father Pollock didn't wait for the others. With a similar nod he withdrew himself from the conversation.

Back in his office, the bishop stared at the folders on his desk…

They were going to save the world after all…

* * *

_…seven days earlier…_

_…Panama…_

"…Eva signals transmitting…pilot bio stats online…Eva activation sequence complete…Evas operational…"

"All right, you guys know the plan, just don't try anything funny today…that last stunt was completely out of line."

The major spoke to a large screen with all the pilots' video uplinks.

"Oh come on Misato, it was just a little fun."

Asuka's voice was barely audible over Shinji and Touji's laughter…

"There were no casualties, and we were able to finish the Miraflores lock ahead of schedule." Rei added blandly.

"Look I agree it was creative…but you guys weren't the one's having to fill out paperwork all of last night."

"Grmmm"

The sound of someone clearing his throat cut through Misato's nagging. Seconds later Edwards image appeared with the others on the videoconference, stacks of files were littered around him and piles of junk and rags towered behind him.

"Tell me, Misato…what was this, work that you keep going on about." Ritsuko prodded.

"Hey, I've been handling this project of over five days now, cut me some slack…" Misato grumbled sheepishly.

"Hey Edward."

"Sup Shinji"

"Uh where are you?"

Now everyone's attention turned to the longhaired man. Edwards's eyes darted around his surroundings…almost fearfully.

"Um…well, all these files proved to be to heavy for me so I had to go to the junkyard to finish them off."

Ritsuko's eyebrows shot up.

"You're at the junkyard, I didn't know panama had such a serious garbage problem."

"They don't, I meant I was in Misato's hotel room, I was getting too lazy carrying these things to my room so I sat up all night and am doing them here."

"You were in Misato's room all night!!!" Asuka screeched.

"Don't worry Asuka, my room got a little to crowded for me so I switched with Edward." Misato smiled, as Edwards frown became a slightly more bitter.

"More like you junked this place so bad and now you can't find the beers anymore."

"N-that's not true…I just ran out of them that's all."

Edward smiled broadly as he pulled a fresh can from somewhere beneath him and waved it annoyingly in front of the camera amongst the others laughter.

Misato, Ritsuko and the three technicians were communicating out of a large eighteen-wheeler truck that had opened out as a mobile command center covered by a massive tent. They were on day five of the expansion of the Panama Canal.

The new had been drawn up by the UN un an attempt to increase sea trade between Europe and the east. The plan had consisted of widening the canal by an additional fifty meters on either side to allow the new breed of 'titan' class cargo vessels to pass through the canal. A sub project to the main one was the laying of a series of fourteen bridges to allow for road transport across the canal.

The previous days incident that caused so much…thrill…was relating to the Miraflores locks.

The locks were placed at either end of the 13.2-kilometer canal. These locks were used to raise the water level to that of the central Gatun Lake and then lower the ships back down to sea level.

The Evas had been installing the gates that the ships would use to enter and exit the locks.

The gates were massive titanium alloy blocks that swing on fat hinges. The weight of the slabs forced the pilots to slowly pass the blocks from one to the other till they reached their destination.

Feeling slightly bored the pilots, egged on mainly by Asuka decided to speed things up.

The pilots began to throw the massive slab from one to another in attempts to install the six gates as soon as possible; this resulted in several panama officials to pass out and a minor earthquake.

By today (the fifth day) the large walls used to widen the canal were in place and the initial on ramps to the bridge. All that was left was to place the three more gates in the other lock system, The Gatun Lock system at the other end of the canal and the twelve bridges.

"All right" Misato cut through the sniggers.

"You guys know the plan, Touji and Shinji you two are spotters, make sure the bridges are aligned. Rei and Asuka, you two set them…we clear."

"yes!" The four of them chanted.

Touji and Shinji got into place at either side of the canal as Asuka and Rei brought the strip of bridge towards them.

Shinji looked around at his surroundings. Green hills rose and fell all around the canal. In the distance Shinji saw the early signs of industrial encroachment into the area.

Looking to his left within the cockpit he saw Rei's image on the video link. Looking to his right, he saw Asuka's face under Touji's. They were both concentrating on their task…they were still carrying the bridge here. He stared at the both of them or a long time…a whirlwind of emotions churning his insides. Touji continued to daydream as the massive strip of concrete and iron came their way.

Shinji looked at the others on his link, Edward was looking down away from the camera, his brow furrowed as his eyes moved slowly from right to left as he filled out report over report. Misato was absentmindedly chatting away with Ritsuko and the other technicians. Their job here was as basic, if not more, as a synch test.

Shinji's mind wandered to the images of the three women that were so permanently in his life…he was sixteen…there was no doubt as to what _kind _of images were running through his mind…mmmmm running…running in slow motion…

"SHINJI!!!"

"Uh wha…what is it."

"Baka!!! The bridge is off, rectify it."

"Uh Y-yes Asuka." Shinji hesitantly went back to his job of aligning the bridges.

"Hey Rei, just a little to the left…yyyyyyyyyyea that should do it. Hey Shinji man come on stop lazing around…shit I cant believe _I _Just said that…I know what you were thinking…you can't fool me."

"Hu-what! What are you saying!! That's not true!!" Shinji screamed as he went a bright red.

"You boys are such perverts." Rei said matter-o-factly as Asuka nodded her head in a conceited manner.

Without even breaking their conversation the four moved on to the second bridge.

"You know that Shinji, he worries me sometimes."

Ritsuko raised an eyebrow at Misato's remark.

"But you told me he has plenty of friends in school."

"Ah its not friends that's the problem…" Misato trailed of.

"Oh." Ritsuko's eyebrows rose.

Even the other three technicians looked curiously.

"Yeah, I mean the others keep getting calls form various people of the opposite sex if you know what I mean. I mean Asuka's already made her way through about four boys."

"Five actually, and I think she's eyeing her sixth." Edward cut in without looking away from his work.

"Wow." Aoba exclaimed "Major Katsuragi…you're raising a real man eater."

"Huh, a real chip of the block."

Edward and the others literally burst out laughing at Hyuga's jibe…and Misato's face.

"Yeah…really funny, but the main thing is…well I've never heard of Shinji talking to a girl."

There was a long awkward silence; Edward seemed to be having trouble preventing his laughter from escaping. One look at the captain and Ritsuko knew he knew what she was thinking the same thing.

"Hey Misato, you don't think he's…"

"Oh no Rit-chan, he's perfectly fine…as far as I know."

Misato stopped to press the button on the video link console allowing the four pilots to hear their conversation.

"I've frequently caught Shinji staring at Rei and Asuka while at home, why he even checks me out from time to time don't you Shinji." Misato teased.

Shinji's face immediately went the deepest crimson. Rei's face was unchanged save for the slight smirk and raised eyebrows. Asuka stared in what seemed to be a mix of disgust and astonishment.

"Hey, n-no, that's not true." Shinji stammered as they placed the fourth bridge.

"Ye…yes it is." Touji got out between laughing. "E-even…Edward's seen it."

Edward smiled lightly in agreement. For some reason, he didn't find the conversation as humorous as the others did. But even as he was about to say something he looked up and his eyes went wide. His scream was cut short when a massive pile of laundry collapsed and fell atop him.

"Um Major…"

A young soldier with auburn hair and a buzz cut stood at the entrance of the enclosure, unsure of what to do. Misato had to take a few seconds to catch her breath while Aoba and Hyuga picked themselves of the floor as the other two slowly recovered from their fits of laughter.

"Yes…what is it?" Misato inquired after composing herself.

"Corporal Nieto reporting. There is someone here to see you Major…they are waiting at the Canal Zone main gate."

"Take me to them corporal."

Straightening up, Misato reached for her NERV jacket and followed the young soldier to a diesel jeep parked outside, leaving Ritsuko and Edward in charge of the Eva operation.

Sitting in the back seat of the jeep, Misato took some time to marvel at the scenery around her. Trees flanked the asphalt road and bathed it in shade, every now and then Misato caught glimpses of the sky and the clouds beyond. Something within her stirred…yearned…but as always…she ignored it. When one was alone, when the mind did wander, it was then that dark thoughts crawled out of dark places and made one's mind their home…well she probably jus needed a drink.

Feeling the jeep slowing, Misato raised her head in time to sea two figures standing on the far side of the gate. Beside the two men was a massive truck…much like NERV's.

Stepping of the Jeep, Misato moved briskly towards the slowly opening iron gate that marked the boundary of the official Panama Canal Zone.

Both the men were dressed in black cassocks and looked fairly grim. The taller man had short white hair and a clean shaven face, while his compatriot had a great golden beard and sported large spectacles.

As Misato approached the older man stuck his hand out and shook Misato's as she walked up to him.

"Greetings Major, I am father Moeketsi Pollock, this is father Hagos, we are here on behalf of the Aether Manus." The man spoke in a slick South African English accent.

Misato nodded politely, she'd heard enough about these guys.

"Greetings father, what may I do for you?" She replied in perfect English as well.

"We are here to help complete the panama project."

"Uh what!!" Misato was slightly taken aback as she watched the large truck pass the gate, a picture of the Virgin Mary within a wreath of thorns on its side. Underneath the insignia was a motto: Beatus es qui operor deus operis. Behind it followed a host of jeeps and cars.

"W-wait, you can't enter without clearance."

"Don't worry Major, we have all the clearance you need." Father Pollock's bespectacled partner handed her a sheet of paper with the UN letterhead upon it.

"Come now Major, we shall complete he gate installation at the Gatun locks."

"How do you plan to do that?" Misato challenged.

"Oh, have some faith Major." Father Pollock smiled as he eyed Misato's pendant.

Misato was about to say something when her jaw dropped. Towering above the trees far behind the truck came three massive…well there was no other word for it…massive robots.

"Let me introduce you to our Mecha system." Father Pollock smiled.

The Mechas were but slightly smaller than the Evas. They looked shockingly familiar to Misato, but she didn't know why. The Mechas exuded an overtly mechanical feeling, they were large dull and a dark gray in color, they seemed to have no heads, only stumps for necks, apart from that they looked fairly effective. Slowly, they lumbered past the entrance and towards the Gatun gates.

"Well Major, we shall meet again once this operation is over. I am confident that we shall encounter each other on various other operations."

With that father Pollock left a speechless Misato to gawk at the towering forms of the Mechas.

"What the hell are those?" Asuka demanded, screaming to no one in particular.

The Eva pilots had stopped midway through placing their eighth bridge as three towering robots passed them by.

"They appear to be replicas of the Eva series." Rei stated.

"They look so weird." Touji remarked on noticing the fact that the Mechas didn't appear to have any heads, there were just stumps in their place.

"Ha, I bet its some lame attempt by NERV to try and replace us. Huh, you guys better up your games or who knows, I might be the only pilot left."

"Yeah, keep telling your self that Asuka."

"Oh shut up, what are you gonna do Shinji." Asuka was almost smiling at the challenge.

"uh, sorry" Asuka groaned at his response.

"Listen up guys" it was Misato, "just ignore those things, they're just posers. Just concentrate on you're work."

"Who are these people." Rei inquired.

"They're some religious organization known as Aether Manus. I don't know what they're up to."

Misato watched as the four Eva pilots hesitantly got back to work.

Ritsuko walked outside to see what all the commotion was all about. There she saw the Aether truck open out and various technicians and workers jump out of the parked jeeps and begin setting up the command station…much like NERV's.

"That really doesn't look like a religious organization." Ritsuko re-entered the large tent.

"They're actually a charity organization, though they do have a very strong religious base." Maya filled in.

"Yeah but these Mecha's seem so…well so far from religion, I mean don't the two contradict?"

"There are only so many ways to god's work with these mortal hands." Father Pollock nearly made Hyuga jump as he entered the command center.

Misato immediately came to block his path.

"Father, you are not allowed I-"

"Enough Major Katsuragi" The bishop cut in in perfect Japanese. "This is a UN operation, and we have full access to all UN operations. Thus I have all right to be here."

Misato deflated slightly as Aoba, Maya and Hyuga all gave the father looks of pure death from the back of their heads. Ritsuko was the only one who kept her manners about her.

"Father, let me introduce you, I am head scientist Doctor Ritsuko-"

"Akagi, yes I am well aware, and those three fine lieutenants must be Makoto Hyuga, Maya Ibuki and E-no this is lieutenant Shigeru Aoba, I am father Moeketsi Pollock of the Aether Manus."

Father Pollock gave the room a conceited smile as Dr.Akagi shifted uncomfortably.

"Uh yes, father Pollock. And this is sub-operations commander Captain Valcos."

"Huh w-what." A voice echoed from the video system as a longhaired man emerged from a pile of clothes. Prying a bra of his head he finally focused on the screen.

"Ahh so this is Edward Valcos, so the famous NERV operations team is complete eh." Father Pollock commented with an inquisitive eyebrow.

"Father Pollock huh." Edward Replied "Aether Manus…you're the guys who just hopped onto the Re-birth program."

Father Pollock chuckled as he nodded in agreement. Putting up his hand to silence the others the bishop pulled out a vibrating slick black cell phone and put it on loudspeaker…something's just needed to be rubbed in their faces.

"Status report." He barked.

"Mechas running at sixty percent…alpha Mecha at sixty seven percent efficiency…its an all time high." The speaker blurted out with crystal clear sound.

Ritsuko mechanically contained her surprise. Even the Eva's struggled to reach such high efficiency levels.

Father Pollock's smile broadened.

"Very good my son, continue with the operation. Lets try and finish this ahead of schedule."

"Yes father Pollock, the reports from the United States HQ has come in, donations and attendance is at a high as usual. We've begun plans for our Arctic and Alaskan charities."

"Very good" Father Pollock replied curtly and shut the phone.

"You have charities so far up north?"

"No major, we have charity organizations set up all over the world. We are only just drawing up plans to set such institutions up in the north. After that we plan on targeting the South Pole and Cana-"

But the sound of commotion outside and the vibration of his phone cut father Pollock short. When he and the others looked at the monitors they saw the impending disaster.

* * *

"Hey Touji, what about you huh, you ever going to ask Hikari out."

"Gah Shinji come on man you're on my si-"

"Ahhhh, oh hell no, there is no way you're going to get to Hikari. I'll save her from you, you watch."

The pilots had gone back to their earlier conversation and Shinji, in attempt to take the spotlight off himself…ended up burning Touji.

"You stay out of this devil child, this is between me and Hikari."

"So you do like her then."

"Hak!!! H-hey S-Shinji man…you really are brutal. I thought you were on my side."

"I-I am, just you know."

Shinji was about to be bombarded b Asuka for his frailties when Rei cut through the banter.

"Something's happening to the Mechas."

The four pilots had gone up to the tenth bridge and were now in sight of the Gatun Locks. As the four pilots looked on they saw that one of the Mecha's was indeed malfunctioning.

There were two Mechas holding the massive slab that would form the final gate of the lock. One of them seemed to be going berserk and the gate was teetering dangerously.

"Hey if that gate falls…it's going to destroy the power generators for the Lock's water pumping station."

Asuka wanted to stop the thing but her and Rei's Eva were tied up with the bridge.

"I'm on it."

Touji had both is hands free-figuratively speaking-and was on the right side of the canal. He took off at full tilt towards the bumbling machine. Somehow the other two Mechas seemed to be malfunctioning as well.

With a low thud the gate hit the ground. Both the Mechas struggled to keep the gate upright and away from the power station. Slowly the slab began tilting more and more.

Touji slammed into the slab and put all his Eva's weight into stopping the slab from falling. Seconds later Shinji's Eva slammed into the slab as well. Usually the Eva's were strong enough to lift the slabs themselves but being unable to reach under the slab made things difficult.

Slowly Touji pried the flailing robot of the slab as Shinji kept it propped up. Keeping the Eva's back against the slab Shinji grabbed the second Mecha and tore it right of the gate, ripping of one of its mechanical arms.

"Ahhh the dirt's giving away, Shinji, this thing aint gonna hold out much longer."

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, hold on Touji."

But it wasn't working, slowly but surely the gate was going to fall…

Misato let out a sigh of relief as she saw the two Eva's of Rei and Asuka come and aid Shinji and Touji.

"Woooooooo, good job guys. That was a close one." She said over the others elated cheers.

Misato was about to bark out more orders when Father Pollock rushed into the room.

"You guys are going to have to pay for the damage you caused."

Misato stared at the monitor as she watched the four Evas successfully place the gate in its proper position.

"Sure father…we'll see."

* * *

Shinji stared at the scene before him. They'd been in their hotel for over a week now. His mind was on fire. Lights flashed all around him, tears fell before him. His mind reeled over his conversation just minutes earlier. His thoughts zoomed around him.

_'Where's our son??'_

Yui's words had been churning in his brain since the day they were uttered. For a year and a half he'd seen his mother alive, yet not once had he ever gone to live in his own home.

'Why don't I go back to them?' 

'_They abandoned me, they left me, …and all they'll do is leave me again.' _

'What's the point in trying if it will only result in pain, they will all leave me?' 'The pain…they will all abandon me…" 

He saw the blood pooling on the floor. His eyes fell on a familiar face…on the rest of the body. Shinji felt someone grabbing his arm, it was Asuka…her eyes wide…

Far on the other side Rei and Touji were staring in utter shock. Both their eyes watery.

Shinji let his tears go free as a shaking Misato dropped the wrist she was holding amidst the mass of bodies. Her words silent and deadly chill through all of them.

"T-there's n-nothing, E-Edward's…D-dead…"

* * *

AN: Sorry for the delay, the main reason I got hung up was that I was researching the Panama freggin canal. Also I had to find a Latin translator for the Aether Manus stuff.

I know the last bit was rushed but what the heck.

PLEASE R&R


	5. Death Pt1

**Chapter 5: Death Pt. 1 **

_'A rabbit…what-the-FUCK-is a rabbit doing here…' _

Clouds painted the green earth with shadow as they danced about the sun's rays. A family of rabbits dragged a large carrot slowly into their hole. Magnolias littered the lush meadow here and there from where he stood all the way to the azure horizon in the distance.

'_Where the…'_

Looking down he almost screamed. To his utter horror, he was wearing cargo shorts and a floral shirt…A FLORAL SHIRT!!!!

"Hey Valcos!!!!"

Edward jumped when he heard the words screamed. Wheeling around he came face to face with the voice's mouth.

There, standing before him in ankle deep grass stood the oddest pair Edward had ever seen. One was about his height and wore a shocking red traditional Japanese kimono, the other looked…yup she looked like a school girl.

_'Wow…now that's culture shock in a nutshell…'_

The man had long white hair; two tiny triangles in his hair-almost like Asuka's A-10 nerve clips-and had what Edward could only describe as claws extending from his fingertips.

"Hey stop staring ya moron!!! When are you coming back?"

Edward's mouth continued to hang open as the strange man continued to scream at him. It seemed this guy had sharpened his canines into fangs.

_'Oh boy…he's one of those…'_

"Hey why aren't you saying any-"

"Um…you are aware you have claws…"

Edward deftly cut in as the black haired girl smiled…she couldn't have been too much younger than the Eva children.

"Of course I have claws…what's gotten into you, you…"

"Erm…who are you????"

Edward was at sea…

"Why you…who am-"

The man had had enough. Giving up on pleasant talk he charged at Edward, sadly he didn't get far.

"Sit boy"

**BOOM**

The girl was still smiling after she ever so silently whispered the words. The man was somewhere near six feet under.

"Oh come on Valcos, don't you remember who we are…"

Edward stared at the girl long and hard…words failing him. Suddenly…as if someone had raised the curtains of his memories, it all came back to him…in his childhood, just after the second impact, reading old mangas, mangas about a girl who fell through a well and…

"You're…y-you're…"

The girl nodded, still beaming as Edwards's brow furrowed, this was some fucked up shit indeed.

"So…w-where am…am I?"

The girl continued to smile…

"Oh come on silly, you're in hell…you tried to save a soul…and now you've reached hell."

Edward's raised an eyebrow…

"In hell eh" he said looking around again. "You sure about that."

Edward wanted to laugh, but the girls continued smiling put him off slightly.

"OOOOOk, wha-"

But that's as far as he got. A flash of silver blinded him slightly as it cut through the girl. The girl-still smiling-slowly disappeared into the lush greenery about her. In her place stood a new figure…this one was immediately recognized.

He was exactly his height. He wore a crisp black suit, the jacket of which-buttoned once above his waist-reached all the way down to a little above his ankles. Even his shirt and tie were black. His hair was exactly the same length as Edward's except for the fact that it was slicked back. He even had the same van dyke as Edward, the same color eyes as Edward. In fact…he was Edward.

After inspecting the large hole in the ground in which the white haired man once resided the new Valcos walked up to Edward, a smirk pasted across his lips.

Edward's reaction though was far from friendly. His face contorted into a grimace, as if he'd tasted something unpleasantly bitter, his hands pointed wildly at his other's face.

"Y-you…y"

The darker Edward put up a hand to silence him…

"Now now Edward, there's no need to be scared its just-" 

"No…its not that" Edward cut in as his darker self raised an inquisitive eyebrow.

"Its just your hair."

The black suited man stopped moving towards Edward, his eyes moving skyward rather stupidly as he tried to 'see' his own hair.

"_What, what's wrong with it?"_

"It's all…you know." Edward twirled his hands wildly over his head in attempts to put his hair back.

_"Oh, that."_ The other said, _"I just thought it made me look more mysterious and dashing you-"_

"Oh no, get rid of it now." Edward swiftly interjected.

Shrugging the dark Edward ran his hands through his long hair and returned it to a middle parting. The hair now lightly rested on his shoulders.

_"Happy" _

And without waiting for Edward to nod in agreement the darker one began walking of in the direction of a low hill as a hesitant Edward hastily followed.

_"So, what are you doing here Edward."_

Edward continued to kick the dirt as he followed his own self.

"Oh nothing, just chilling in hell allegedly."

The dark Edward let out a burst of laughter

_"Hmmm, really…do you believe that?"_

As they walked, they passed a set of broken down swings. The wood on all four of the swings was long since rotten. The rope on the second swing from the left had snapped completely. Edward stared at the slightly out of place structure as he finally replied.

"Huh…imagine that. I'm in my own sub conscious aren't I."

The dark Edward nodded as they slowly made their way onto the gentle slope of the hill. All of a sudden, without warning, the darker man suddenly sat down on the grass, giving him an odd look Edward sat quietly down beside him.

For a long time the two just sat, silent, staring out towards the horizon.

"So…um what are we doing here?"

Dark Edward gave Edward a quick smile.

_"Haaaaaaa, well…as you can guess you're pretty close to the end."_

Edward blanched considerably.

_"Yes, uh…don't worry. You're just going to have to answer a few questions. You ready?"_

Edward was still recovering from his others lighthearted comment about his very own ending…not cool…not cool at all. Nodding slowly, he readied himself for the 'questions'.

_"Ok, well here they are…Edward Valcos, who are you…who are we?"_

Edward raised an eyebrow.

_"Think about it, the questions are many times one and the same…yet the answers are quite different…and other times they are the same."_

Edward's eyebrow moved even higher.

"You know, if you were trying to be deep…well you got it all wrong. You could have said something like these questions are different but their answer is very much the sa-"

_"Ok ok, you got me. Chill man…fuck, just answer the question."_

Edward hurriedly nodded the other to silence. Rubbing his hands together, getting himself into a serious mindset.

"Ok…who are we…who am I? Well…well I'm Edward Valcos."

His dark self smiled back…speaking only in silence.

"…That's not right is it?…"

Silence

"…Edward Valcos is a name…it describes a man who has long hair, twenty years old, has a Van dyke…no…no that doesn't work…"

The black suited man still said nothing, only his eyes egging Edward on.

"…those things are just a small part of me…if my name was something else like…"

_"Isaac maybe."_

Edward irritably shrugged his own self off.

"Whatever it is, it wouldn't change who I am…if a man had long hair and was twenty and what not…he wouldn't be me…yea he wouldn't be me. So…what makes me…what makes…us?"

The other remained silent…he seemed pleased with Edward's progress.

"…W-we are creatures born from this world. W-we…I…w-we are born f-from…no. We are…we are…creations. Yeah that's it we are creations."

The other gently nodded.

_"Impressive."_

"No…we can't simply be creations. A machine is a creation, something created by us. But we are not the same as machines right?…right…we aren't the same."

Edward was silent for a long time. All along the other said nothing, giving Edward the time to discover the answers for himself.

Finally, after what seemed an age, Edward spoke…a look of revelation in his eyes.

"…That's it…self."

He turned excitedly towards the other.

"W-we are creations, but we have the concept of self…we have individuality…that fucking it. See, an engine is a creation…it is a machine…and so is a car. When an engine is added to a car…the engine's individuality is lost. When we enter a car we remain who we are…yeah, we can be part of greater works…but we retain our inherent individuality…that's it. We are creations who have self."

The other smiled wide. Standing up he offered a hand to Edward. Confused, Edward took the hand.

_"That was good…a few holes here and there…but that's good enough for today, come on its time we got going."_

Edward stood up along side his own self.

"So…where are we going."

The other almost burst out laughing.

_"Hey, that was my next question…Come on its time to go…"_

He replied as he watched a content family of rabbits emerge from their hole…

* * *

Crickets…crickets chirped in the silence of the night. Everyone seemed tiered yet unwilling to submit to sleep. It had been a week since the incident with the Mecha's at the Canal and by now the Panama Royal Hotel looked sickeningly familiar.

The bunch had been delayed in their return to Japan due to a security breach. Allegedly someone had broken into Misato's apartment and the ongoing investigation had held them all up. Their flight was tomorrow morning and hey all seemed to want nothing to do with sleep. All except Edward of course, he was fast asleep in his room…he'd been sent by Gendo to submit the operation reports of the Panama project to the UN headquarters in New York and had only just gotten back.

They had all gathered in Asuka and Rei's suite-it being the cleanest-and were all eagerly waiting for room service to arrive with their dinners. Most of the lights were switched off or dimmed reflecting the others dull mood.

The room was actually a two-bedroom suite, the other room used by Shinji and Touji. The two bedrooms were connected by a central room, which had a T.V, a dinner table a kitchenette…it sufficed to say that NERV were sparing no expenses on their top operations team. Though-contrary to Gendo's beliefs-they were still fairly underpaid.

Misato and Ritsuko were sitting chatting away at the table. Asuka was busying herself with the television; Touji was sprawled out on the couch behind her…messaging Hikari no doubt. Rei sat by herself in a dark corner looking out towards the veranda on the other side of the central room (just another thing…the room was attached to a private veranda overlooking the gardens…just another thing…). Shinji sat on the floor leaning against the side of the couch listening to his I-pod…yes the now obsolete S-DAT player was long gone.

Each of the children, as well as Misato were happily buzzed on beer. Yes Misato's philosophy was simple, if the children (Shinji in particular) were allowed to decide whether man emerged from instrumentality or not…then they could choose whether to drink or not. And it seemed that none of them were novices at the art…they just never appeared to do it in public.

"Hey Touji, she might get sick of you if you message her so much." Misato teased.

Touji immediately dropped the phone in surprise as he sat up straight.

"Wa-hey no, I just…I was telling Kensuke about what's going on here…I wan't talking to Hikari…n-no way, why would I do that."

"Yeah sure." Shinji cut in, taking of his earphones. "That's what you said over the past five days."

Misato giggled," More importantly, I never said you were talking to Hikari."

Seeing no escape, Touji suffered the jibes from Misato Asuka and-a few-from Shinji.

"Hey is that why you keep running of from home for long periods of time like that…you have Shinji cover for you right." Misato was loving this.

"Hell no, come on guys back off…when was the last time I left like that, come on Misato that's not fair."

"AAAAAAAAAh, no don't tell me. You pervert. You didn't force her to…you know."

Touji's face exploded in utter horror as Misato fell of her chair laughing.

"Hell no…ahh, that's low even for you devil child."

"S-so…aha…so you're still a virgin??" Misato probed as she slowly lifted herself from the floor.

"Hey what's wrong with that…so am I." A raspy voice sounded from the door of one of the bedrooms.

Every one, Rei included, turned their heads to se a very groggy Edward standing in the doorway in pajamas and a slight shirt.

"You're a virgin!!!" Asuka, Misato and the up till now silent Ritsuko yelled in utter shock.

Edward took a step back…realizing what he'd just admitted to he defended himself.

"Hey…I've had had my fair share…it's just that…well you know I've never…"

"Had sex." Misato completed while raising an eyebrow.

Edward smiled at the comment, but simultaneously his hand reached for his chest…gripping it as his smile turned to a slight grimace.

In his mind, flashes of a man and a woman…the woman's skin a slight off white…her blood a deep crimson…her screams, loud and clear.

"No I'm not." Edward whispered as the others laughs died down.

"E-Edward…you ok." Touji inquired.

Edward nodded weakly. "Yeah just fine…I need a shower."

With that the man re-entered the bedroom and disappeared from the others sights. Edward's brief performance had done enough to sufficiently kill all conversation. Misato went to the little fridge and opened another can and resumed her conversation with Ritsuko about the theft in her own apartment. The others went back to their respective activities.

Minutes passed as Shinji sat and listened to music. His eyes moving in and out of focus Shinji caught sit of a solitary Rei sitting in the corner of the room…away from all conversation.

Resolving the tiny battle within himself, Shinji mustered up all the courage he had (plus he had the judgment augmenting powers of alcohol within him) and walked over and sat down beside Rei.

Touji continued to stick to his cell phone, Asuka continued watching T.V., Misato and Ritsuko continued talking…though their eyes seemed to dart in Shinji's direction every now and then.

Rei gave Shinji a slightly startled look before going back to staring outside. Minutes passed and the two said nothing. Shinji tried to concentrate on the sound of the T.V. but nothing was killing time the way it should…so he decided to speak up.

"Hey Rei, what's up." It was the best he could do right now.

"Nothing Shinji…I'm just fine." She replied without turning.

"Before the third impact I might have believed you. But by you're new standards you're acting quite strange."

Letting out a deep breath Rei bowed her head. She to was a little tipsy.

"Is this real?"

Shinji almost fell over…what was she saying.

"I had the soul of Lillith, after the impact…I…shouldn't be here."

Shinji was stunned…he'd really bitten of more than he could chew.

"Am I real Shinji? Or is this just some dream…do I exist…I…I'm never sure."

"Come on Rei…o-of course you exist…"

"You have parents Shinji…you came from somewhere, I…I was created…I'm…I'm a fake."

Shinji recoiled slightly. His mind spun as he tried to find a way out of this. Reis words seemed to echo in his head. Drawing blanks everywhere his mind went…he did the only thing in his mind.

Gently he jokingly punched Rei on the shoulder and smiled at the startled look she gave him.

"See, you look pretty real from where I stand."

Rei seemed completely floored by Shinji's response. The sound of a water hose spraying water was heard in the background followed by a long groan. With that Rei thanked Shinji and got up walked across the room and sat beside Asuka…who was having trouble stopping her jaw from hitting the floor.

Misato stood beside a drenched Edward fresh from he bath still holding her beer can. She couldn't believe what shed just seen. See slowly turned to Touji whose flabbergasted face slowly nodded, confirming that neither of them had been dreaming.

As if unperturbed by the others, Shinji quietly made his way to the veranda, there he stood against the railing and stared out into the vast maze of hedges that were the hotel gardens. His mind mulled over everything Ayanami had told him. What if this were just a dream? The world had rebuilt itself fairly quickly. Then he remembered what Rei had said after that.

_'You have parents Shinji.'_

Yeah he had parents…thoughts of Gendo and Yui quickly drove out all notions of a questionable reality out of his mind.

"You're thinking about them aren't you Shinji."

Misato walked up beside him and rested her hands upon the railing.

"Wow her tone is so incredibly compassionate, I've never hear her be that gentle."

Ritsuko whispered to the others as they watched the pair on the veranda.

"More incredibly she sounds sober…that's about her tenth beer."

Edward dryly added…which was ironic because he was far from dry and he was currently reeking of alcohol. Taking one drag of the complementary cigarette that the doctor offered him Valcos put the stick in the ashtray and stormed off towards the door.

"Aoba, where the f-…Where are you?!!!"

They watched as the man marched out towards the main corridor towards the tech's room. Once the door slammed shut, the reverted their attention to the scene outside.

"W-what do you mean?" Shinji defended.

"Oh come on, you wouldn't get this bothered by the other stuff Rei said."

Silence ensued as Shinji continued to stare out into the darkened greenery. The truth was rather uncomfortable. Shinji had been living with Misato ever since the third impact. He' been living under the excuse that it was standard procedure for the pilots to live in close proximity…but that's all it ever was…an excuse. His parents were the top two at NERV…he could go live with them and no one would raise an eyebrow…but he hadn't.

"I-its n-nothing."

Shinji finally stammered.

"Look Shinji…I'm not saying that you go live with them." Misato said while placing a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

"Just remember this." Shinji looked right into her brown eyes not flinching.

"I know how it feels to be distant from ones parents. It's Ok to run away from time to time Shinji. You just have to always come running back…otherwise…otherwise you'll never get anywhere."

Shinji was slightly taken aback by Misato's depth. But, all immature revelations of the major's philosophical prowess aside, her presence seemed to put Shinji at ease, he still new that one day he'd have to face his father…but somehow he felt better prepared now.

But their quiet little meeting was cut short when something rather disturbing caught Misato's eye. Hesitantly taking her hand of Shinji's shoulder Misato squinted into the darkness of the vast garden. There was no doubt.

"Get down." She whispered slowly pushing Shinji down to the floor.

Crouching down herself they slowly made their way to inside of the room where the others were looking at them rather bizarrely. Once inside the two got up and everyone waited for Misato's explanation when they received one from a different source.

Edward burst into the room his berretta 92FS in hand ; Aoba was seen running down the corridor behind him. Shutting the door as he entered he spoke.

"We've got company."

"Yeah." Misato added. "I saw at least seven in the garden…they're armed with automatics."

"We'll get lucky if there're only seven." Edward walked over to the glass doors of the veranda and slid them shut as Misato reached for her small bag beside the table…she carried her gun with her just in case.

With a light click Misato slipped the 9mm magazine into her Heckler & Koch USP. Pulling the slide back she cocked the pistol and stood beside the door.

Edward pulled his slide back, ensuring a bullet was in the chamber he faced Ritsuko as Misato spoke to her.

"I'll escort you to you're room. Get you're pistol and come back here and protect the children."

"What's going on?" Asuka demanded.

"Not now Asuka." Misato snapped as Edward gave her and the others a reassuring smile.

"We're just being attacked by a bunch of friendly terrorists nothing big."

"You guys hang tight here, wait for Dr.Akagi to return."

With that both she and Edward stood on opposite sides of the door and readied to move out. Both were looking at each other rather seriously when Misato crinkled her nose.

"Wow, you smell of beer."

Edward smiled sardonically.

"Oh really is that so, isn't that ni-just open the door." He completed as his smile vanished humorously.

Misato smiled teasingly and mouthed a three count. On reaching three she threw the door open and Edward jumped out into the corridor…a memory of his clumsy joking self. Aiming his gun down both sides of the hall he took up a sentry position beside the wall.

Once sure the corridor was clear Misato nodded at Ritsuko and the two of them set of down the left side of the hall.

"Rear lobby in five." Edward whispered and took of down the right.

The children were about to sit down ad watch T.V. to kill time when the power to the hotel was killed.

"Uh oh, what the hell do these guys want?" Touji asked.

"They're probably from those Manus guys, they must be pretty pissed that we showed them up." Asuka whispered as they all huddled around the couch, the only light coming from the bright moon.

Ritsuko pulled out her NERV card and slipped it in her door…luckily they door keys ran on back up power and it clicked open. Seeing her off, Misato silently rushed down the corridor and down the flight of stairs towards the rear lobby leading to the gardens.

The power out and been expected, but hopefully the terrorists hadn't entered the building as yet. All about her she could here rooms opening and confused people emerging from their rooms. Just as she was about to reach the entrance to the lobby a bus boy of the hotel stopped her.

"Eh a wait, you cannot go. I-"

Misato cut the man's butchery of English short by flashing the NERV badge on her jacket. Her NERV card was not on her at the moment.

Rushing into the lobby she noticed the Edward had already moved into the gardens. Running up to one of the entrances of the edge maze she met up with a crouching Edward.

"Status Captain."

"So now that you're life is potentially in my hands its Captain otherwise its 'Edward you smell of beer'…"

"Just tell me what's going on."

"The local police's coming in about fifteen minuets, but I'm not sure how efficient they are."

"Right, I saw them mostly in the maze here, the other exit's on the other side of the garden. So I guess they came in from the back. You go left an ill take the right."

With that the two burst into the maze and swept about it with a speed and co-ordination rarely seen from the two.

After taking two lefts and a right without any action Misato crouched down beside the hedge wall upon hearing the soft mumble of voices.

"…jump in with the other team…" his english had a German accent. His voice extremely raspy.

"Remember, take the children alive…"

"Yes sir."

Misato crouched lower until she heard one pair of footsteps die down. The other was coming closer and closer. Waiting for her moment Misato jumped out from the cover, rolling once she finished on her knees, her gun pressed against the mans abdomen.

The terrorist was wearing crude Kevlar and army pants.

"Freeze."

The man froze, his eyes going wide under his ski mask.

"What the fuck are you doing here?"

But the man wasn't ready to answer. Quickly he reached for his rifle…but he would never make it.

BLAM!!!

The grassy earth broke the sound of the cartridge falling. Not waiting for the man to fall, Misato took of along the path. All around the sound of hurried footsteps could be heard. As she ran down deferent paths at random she heard other shouts from around the maze.

BLAM

BLAM

Misato recognized the distinct sound of berretta fire. Hearing the sounds of gunfire fuelled her mind further. Feeling adrenaline poring through her blood she turned the next corner without taking cover, Misato unloaded two bullets into an unsuspecting sentry. As she ran she heard sounds of rifle fire followed by a muffled scream. She hoped nothing had happened to Edward. But her brief lapse of concentration caused her to loose her footing; tripping on her feet she hit the floor hard and rolled into the hedge wall with a low thud. As she lay on the dirt she heard the cautious footsteps of another man draw ever closer…the thud hadn't been low enough.

Slowly she looked around for her gun, she found it pretty quickly…it was about a foot from her reach along the hedge wall.

The sentry was coming ever closer to turning the corner. The German voice echoed in her ears and an idea struck her.

The terrorist rounded the corner to see a person with her legs up to her chest crying into her knees. The man slowly advanced towards the teary girl with his gun always trained on her. After getting close enough the man turned his head around to speak to his comrades.

"Hey…I think I found one of them…lets tag em' quick."

But when he turned around he found out that he was staring into the barrel of a Heckler and Koch sidearm.

BLAM!!!

The man's body went limp. Ensuring that he wasn't moving Misato picked herself up and took off…not a tear on her. She ran down the path and rounded another corner and quickly pulled back.

Bullets ripped through the hedge beside her as she took cover against it. She'd seen at least three on the other side. Taking a deep breath Misato broke into action once again. Moving out into plain view of the three she rolled along the floor towards them. Bullets kicked up dirt around her as she came close to the first man.

Using her crouched position as leverage she leapt up towards the trigger-happy terrorist. Her knee connected with his skull with efficient and considerable force. As he went down she charged the other two as she continuously fired rounds off at them. Reaching the second she ducked his firearm knocking it out of her way. Grabbing his other arm she turned him around and used him as a shield for the third.

His body spasmed as an endless spray of bullets connected with her shield cum corpse. Coming out from behind the man Misato fired off three shots at the last, the second connecting with his head.

Finishing with the two Misato returned to the unconscious first and put one in his skull for safekeeping. Finally after some more nervous running she turned the last corner to what she thought would lead to the rear exit…she was right. Facing her were about five armed men crouching behind various dustbins and a solitary shot up car.

Her eyes went wide as she saw them all ready to fire.

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!

Misato felt something hard connect with her abdomen. The next thing she new she was lying in the dirt under the cover of the hotels concrete perimeter wall. Above her Edward was facing her with a conceited grin across his face.

"Wasaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, look I think they have another team going up to the hotel room…but we gotta handle these guys first."

Misato smiled as she got up releasing the empty magazine to the floor. Reaching behind her she slipped in another one, cocking the gun she mouthed a three count.

"Oh bugger…you're proverbial cow jumped over the moon a while ago didn't it." Edward whispered whilst cocking his own gun.

* * *

"Wow, for two people who always seem to be taking shots at each other…they really kick ass." Touji exclaimed.

"Hey!! Get back from that window." Ritsuko warned.

The children were still sitting around the couch, none of them seemed to perturbed by the gunfire. It was nothing new to them. Ad as it would seem in hindsight…Touji should have listened to the good doctor.

With a crash of glass the child was sent flying across the central room as two guards burst feet first through the glass doors after rappelling down the walls from the roof. These guards were dressed in full uniform…almost like SWAT units.

Ritsuko rolled over behind the couch. Getting back up she unloaded at least five rounds…most of which found their target.

Ritsuko turned around as the children scampered about the couch…shaking slightly but still unfazed. On turning the doctor faced another man. She raised her gun to shoot but she never got there.

A silent 'pif' was heard as his silenced weapon went off. Ritsuko quickly retracted her arm as her gun was shot right out of her hand.

From the right Aoba and Hyuga burst into the room, sidearms searching for targets.

Pif Pif

Aoba and Hyuga screamed as bullets effortlessly tore through their arm and foot respectively.

"Ok, nobody try to be a hero." His Japanese was slightly broken…his voice raspy. Reaching to his two-way on his shoulder he barked out a few orders in English.

"Area secure, contain the children."

Four other guards burst in from the veranda window. And surrounded the children.

"Just co-operate with them." Ritsuko spoke gently.

"That's right…listen to he good do-"

Movement at the door interrupted the raspy voice, immediately he grabbed the doctor and moved behind the bedroom door out of sight.

Edward burst into the room and ducked beside the couch. Using the shattered pieces of glass on the floor he was able to se reflections of the whole room, including the area behind him. Jumping up he squeezed of five shots. The four guards fell limp to the floor.

Edward raced across the room towards the children. As he passed the veranda opening his eyes caught a reflection of the door of the bedroom right behind him.

The man, still holding Ritsuko smiled. Squeezing the trigger he had no doubt it would find its target…even if it were hurtling through the room.

Edward slammed hard into the floor as the bullet ripped through his neck.

Ritsuko and the children ran towards the fallen corpse after the doctor was released from the man's grasp. They surrounded the body; Asuka's eyes wide with horror…Rei's eyes were unusually teary.

The man stood facing the mourning group his back to the door. He felt good about the days work…

His conceited smile was slightly worn down when he heard the sound of running footsteps. Gracefully turning gun in hand he faced his assailant…

But Misato already had a running start…

Pif

BLAM

Misato fell to the floor beside the couch as the man felt the bullet tear a hole in his shoulder. Using what strength he had left within him he quickly retreated to the ropes in the veranda.

"Interesting." He whispered wincing slightly at the unfamiliar pain rippling through his shoulder.

Misato picked herself up…ensuring that she was ok she picked her gun up ready to chase the man down. But her movements were stopped by the sound of dry sobbing…it was then that she saw the unmoving body of Edward Valcos…

* * *

…_earlier that day…_

…_U.S army research outpost Alaska…_

"…glad to hear it…I had to pull some strings to get it to ya. Yes…yes the paoff was good."

Major Turner spoke into the receiver while admiring the silver briefcase on his desk.

"..n-no I haven't seen the results, we put them on a disk and sent them straight to you. Yeah…yeah…yeah always. Yup it's been my pleasure. No thank you…goodbye."

Putting the phone down the major felt good about the days work. The payment was of course…worth it all. Ordering himself a hot cup of coffee Chris Turner placed his legs up on the table and put on his headphones and started listening to some old…old country music. He never sae the terrorists run up over the hill towards the outstation…the terrorists with massive rocket launchers and RPGs…

* * *

Wow that's a long chapter. Hope you guys enjoy. Now things are gonna start getting messed up so you have to pay attention to everything…everything.

I've seen a lot og guys put this on alert lists and Favs…super cool…thanx…and please REVIEW…I need the inspiration.

**To the critics**

**Fifthman:**

See…making this a new chapter was kinda a necessity. I hope I fleshed it out good. Thanx for all the reviews…keep em comin.!!!


	6. Rebirth we Must

**Chapter 6: Rebirth we Must**

…bleep…

'…_be strong…'_

…

…

…bleep…

'…_come on Asuka…you're stronger than this…you won't cry…'_

'…_I don't need to cry…why do I need to cry…'_

'…_but you're tearing you're heart out…'_

…bleep…

'…_and you're forcing it back in…'_

'…_which do you prefer…to be strong…'_

'…_I am strong…'_

'…_or to be a pathetic crying lump of shit…to be…weak.'_

'…_n-…'_

…bleep…bleep…bleep…

"H-how long before he regains consciousness."

Misato shook every time she walked across room 24-H in NERV medical wing…this time was no different.

"His vitals look stable…he's doing just fine…as to when he'll come around…I haven't the slightest clue."

Misato's shoulders slumped slightly though she still felt reassured. Letting out a low whistle she and Dr.Akagi turned to face the massive window looking into Edward's room. One horrible night spent in a local panama hospital followed by three nights here…it was a miracle that the man had survived this long…let alone humoring the possibility of a return to consciousness.

The four children had come straight out of school on hearing of the chance of recovery to check on their young guardian. Each of them seemed visibly shaken, though Asuka seemed to be taking it rather calmly…on the outside.

Behind the set jaw and gently quivering blue eyes roared a maelstrom of violent emotions. She remembered seeing the man fall, she felt hands come out from the darkness and take her heart in their palms. As the man fell she felt the fingers begin to tighten their icy grip. She saw his eyes and hers began to glisten with her pain…

Her knees gave way as she fell towards his body, in the darkness of her blinding shock she reached out for a ray of light. Her fingers clasped a wrist, a violent jitter but contact remained, her eyes met his for all but fleeting seconds before they broke away.

Asuka jerked her hand away from Shinji's…the fuck was she doing!!!!!

'What the fuck are you doing' she said or something like that… 

'_s-sorry…'_ had come the expected response. Huh…he was such a wi-

"Actually he shouldn't be alive at all."

Asuka let out a startled breath as she turned to face the new voice.

On feeling four pairs of eyes trained on her Yui Ikari slowly turned away from Dr.Akagi and Misato to face the children.

"Hey there, how're the lot of you doing, hello Touji."

"Hello Dr.Ikari"

"Asuka."

"Good morning obasama."

"Morning Shinji dear."

"Erm uuh…morning mother."

"…Hello Rei…"

"Good morning ma'am."

…

…bleep…

…

It was like that hand had returned to all of them and sucker punched them all in the gut. It had been a year and a half but the atmosphere still seemed to quadruple in intensity whenever Yui and Rei stood in close social proximity of each other.

"Uh…erm w-what was the m-mental state of the patient…" said Dr.Akagi as she sought to cut through the crushing silence.

"Well" Yui replied almost immediately.

"Actually his mental activity is off the charts, his brain cell impulses are about double that of a normal brain."

"Huh" Misato shrugged, immediately perking up

"That's amazing…maybe we should shoot him in the neck more often."

Yui chuckled and lightly shoved Misato's shoulders.

"Well whatever it is, coming back to your first question we can't be sure when he regains consciousness. I'd expect to see him up and about in about a month or so."

Conversation continued among the adults as the children crossed the hall and took a seat on the medical wing's 'waiting' benches. It was then that they noticed a solitary figure walking down towards them.

Even the adults noticed the figure walking towards them each seemed to straighten up in turn…all except.

"Morning Yui."

"Hello Gendo dear…where are you off too."

"The results for Edward's tests Dr.Akagi." said the gruff voice in a commanding tone.

"Now now Gendo, remember your manners." Yui cut in before Ritsuko could do a thing.

"Err…um…s-sorry Yui." The mighty Gendo whispered under his breath.

"The results for Edward's tests…p-please."

That feeling of awkward standing coupled with the conflicting need to disappear and or run from the nearby environment returned to Misato tenfold as she watched the NERV commander crumble.

"And what did I say about ignoring peoples questions."

"Y-ye-sorry Yui." Gendo mumbled as he took a brown folio from Dr.Akagi

"Erm…I'm going to the UN summit on the rebirth program. Its being held in Osaka so I should be back for the briefing in the evening."

Giving the children a curt wave…that by all means could have been the swing of death's sickle the children would have been just as petrified…Gendo Ikari made his way silently towards the exit of the wing leaving the others in the rhythmic beeps of Edwards numerous heart monitors.

* * *

"Come on, pay attention…"

The four children stiffened in their seats and turned their heads towards the screen. Beside them Ritsuko gave Misato a hurried prod turning her attention to the deputy commander standing before the LCD screen bearing a large emblem of the Virgin Mary.

Three rows above them Yui sat beside an impatient Gendo Ikari as Fuyutsuki began his talk.

"Grmm…well, as you all know we are here today for a briefing on all this mess that's being going on. Commander Ikari saw it necessary that all of us be shown the complete story behind the Manus and their Mecha's…as you all know you all have two projects back to back in Eastern Europe under the rebirth program one of which is with them."

"Ahhhh…boorin-"

Sadly the second child's predictable protest was cut out by the irritated stares the others gave her.

"Fine."

"Uh…thank you miss Soryu. Now on to business, to better understand the Manus of today we must understand how the Manus came to be. The Aether Manus was commissioned by Pope Boniface the eighth on October 25th 1294.

At this time, Christianity was at the height of its powers…not spiritual powers necessarily though, but its political powers."

A few eyebrows were raised at this.

"You see, Europe had only just emerged from the dark ages and had led several crusades in the name of the Holy See. The Vatican's word was stronger than law. Thus the Manus was created to be a sort of, bureaucratic and administrative wing of the Vatican. They had no real say when it came to the faith; their main objective was to ensure the smooth flow of funds and to ensure that perpetuation of the faith. The Vatican used its immense political strength to place members of the manus in important positions in the courts of various kings all over Europe. Their members were not necessarily bishops or priests, actually most of them were educated intellectuals etcetera."

"Hey, wasn't the Vatican against science and education as such?"

"Uh yes Asuka, they were. But you see the Manus were created as a bureaucracy and were distant from the actual faith of Christianity. So, even though the head of the Manus were extremely devout Christians under the Vatican, they had slowly learned to put political interest ahead of holy salvation. Till about the fourteenth century the Manus were simply the political wing of the Vatican…but it was about now that it attained its true power. The period between the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries heralded in the modern age. The Vatican-with the emergence of naval exploration had a whole new agenda on its hands…the alleged 'civilizing of the rest of the world'. So the Manus was entrusted with the duty of ensuring that the missionaries had the right tools and funds to promote the faith. With this the Manus gained a firm foothold in the emerging arena of sea trade. Using their position they inserted their men in key positions in the East India trading companies of the Dutch, the English, the French, the Danish, the Swedish and the Portuguese. As time progressed the Manus gained footholds in the spice trade and the slave trade. By the middle of the eighteenth century the manus had gained huge amounts of wealth, only a small amount of which was returned to the Vatican."

"They had their fingers in every god damn pie." Gendo grumbled as the others turned hesitantly around to see Yui gently smack him on top of the head.

"Come on Gendo, don't use such language in front of the others."

"Uhh…s-sorry Yui."

Everyone-especially Fuyutsuki-shifted most uncomfortably.

"Errrrr…ummmmm…yes, well the Manus went through another transformation during the late eighteenth century. This period saw the emergence of the industrial revolution and the birth of industries and…most importantly…democracy. The Manus used its now staggering political weight to place its members in high posts in governments across Europe. They invested huge amount of their fortune in various industries and this began the relationship of the Manus with industry. Throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries Christendom saw a general decline in the faith while the Manus continued to prosper. Throughout this period the Vatican began to slowly look down on the Manus, even the head priests of the Manus weren't spared.

1933 and the great depression hit. The Manus found that many of their industries were falling and loosing out, to add to that, the Vatican was threatening to dissolve the Manus completely. So the Manus decided to dissolve itself. It broke into a hundred and thirty one front organizations. Actually the Manus broke into groups of investment firms, this allowed them to be far more flexible with their money. These firms gave out loans and aid to other suffering industries and in turn grew. During the First World War and the depression the Manus slowly shifted their political and economic base from Europe to America. During the recovery from the depression, the Manus shifted their interests and ordered their sister firms to begin investing in arms manufacturing industries. Many of its older firms continued to give economic aid to others and would soon become its modern power base. The core of the Manus continued as the 'Aether Manus', which became-and still is-the hardcore right wing Christian lobby in numerous governments across the world. So now the Manus became a sort of…"

"Uhh…was it like a secret organization…you know like those m-masons or s-something."

"Correct Mr.Ikari…uh I-I mea-"

The room fell deathly silent again at the deputy commander's words. Fuyutsuki opened and closed his mouth several times without saying a word. There was only one person in that room who had been addressed as Mr.Ikari…and it by all means wasn't Shinji.

"Good job drear."

Yui cheerfully resounded as the others once again found themselves between a rock and a hard place…or in this case Shinji and his father. Gendo silently nodded at Shinji and reverted to his normal position. His fingers slowly came together ready to mesh… suddenly he caught sight of Yui eyeing him. Slowly one of his hands reached to readjust his glasses as the other patted Yui's hand, an innocent and miniscule smile across his face.

"Erm…well continuing. The Manus went on as such until the twenty-first century. 2000, the second impact occurs and man's belief in the world. The Manus helped the Vatican to increase donations and attendance in churches across the map…they played the only card they had…apocalypse. Thus the Vatican allowed the small organization they thought was the Manus to survive and prosper. The rest of the Manus on the other hand re-organized itself once again. Their firms now bean to invest in scientific research and defense initiatives, why much of the sub-contracting that was done during the construction of Tokyo-3's defenses were to companies largely owned by the Manus. Most of the other firms began investing on a large scale in charity organizations and aid/relief institutions…though they were 'non profit' organizations; the Manus raked in millions under the table. These organizations worked primarily in the southern hemisphere helping in the reconstruction."

The deputy commander looked down and pressed the remote in hand. The screen behind them had been showing dull images of the depression and the crusades, now it sowed an all to familiar picture…it was of course, and artist's rendering.

"January of two thousand sixteen…the third impact occurs. The world is complemented and Shinji Ikari chooses to allow humanity to return to its original state."

An odd silence ensued where Shinji felt as if he wanted to sink into the seat upon which he sat.

"Mid February-as according to lunar charts-what's left of complemented humanity instantly reverts back to physical form and the world is partially rebuilt by forces that till date remain unexplained. Within the first few weeks up till mid march the Vatican earns a large fortune from church donations and attendance sores. People of the world are touched by death and look to re-deem themselves as such. Religions across the world see exponential increases in their support. The Manus reveal the true extent of their powers to the Vatican and the Vatican bow to their power. They were made aware of the Manus' reach and accepted their position unconditionally. Now a hundred and twenty of the Manus' firms bought up aid and relief institutions and openly affiliated themselves with the Manus. The remaining eleven firms remained secret and continued to keep their money in scientific research and technological development. April of two thousand sixteen, the Aether Manus press charges against SEELE top members and they are put on trial. 21st June, the Aether Manus seize all SEELE assets and make them their own. 23rd June, the UN launches the re-birth program, and NERV is its inaugural member. The program gives huge amounts of monetary aid to help in the reconstruction of the world. July of 2017, the Manus unveil their Mecha series; with the spotless record of their countless relief organizations on their side the Aether Manus are accepted into the re-birth program."

Fuyutsuki pressed the remote once again, now the screen lit up with images of several bishops.

"Since its inception, the Aether Manus have been led by a group of seven bishops known as he court of seven."

"Now that's imaginative…huh."

"Hey!! Pay attention Touji."

Misato snapped as Touji and Shinji sniggered away.

"Ever since the Manus came clean to the Vatican, the holy see placed their own representative to chair the court."

A new picture came up behind the deputy commander.

"This is father Alfredo Fiorenzo, he's been a member of the court for over twenty years now. Post third impact, the Vatican gave him a fatter paycheck and promoted him to the head of the Manus thinking he'd be their dog. Sadly he did what all heads of the Manus did before him…he played for both teams…he just made sure that the Manus always won."

A new picture came up as Shinji swore he hear rustling to his left.

"This is father Moeketsi Pollock, he's South African, as far as we know he's been the one in charge of the Mecha program."

Misato gave a curt nod.

"And this brings us to our next segment of the briefing…the Mecha's."

Right on cue Ritsuko stood up and readied herself.

"Dr.Akagi and her team have been kind enough to gather a fair amount of information on the Mecha system. Dr.Akagi, if you would."

"Err, thank you commander Fuyutsuki."

Ritsuko hesitantly took the deputy's place. Taking the remote from him the picture on the screen behind her changed now to an image of the new Mecha and the Eva system standing side by side.

"To begin with-"

But Ritsuko was cut short by the sight of a figure standing beside the door on the far end of the briefing room. With tiered strides the man walked up to the screen, clad in deep navy blue pants and a red NERV jacket, bandages wound around his neck.

"EDWARD!!!" most of the room screamed in unison. Asuka jumped out of her seat and over the first row and wrapped her arms around Edward's neck.

"Hey-ak"

Edward tenderly patted the German girl on the back while he bit down profusely on his left knuckles…his neck was still immensely tender.

Prying himself from her he walked up to the others who were al standing up in amazement.

"Edward!!! You're not cleared to leave the wing for-"

"Ahh Yui…I'm sorry…that place just aint for me. Sup T man."

"Wow, thought you were a gonner there." Touji said as he returned Edwards high five.

Moving on he gave Shinji a hearty smack on the back…a little too hearty for the pilots sake. Moving on to Rei, Edward's smile disappeared turning a way in his most theatrical manner he spoke.

"Hello Rei."

"Hello Edward." Came the reply.

Silence.

"Well, I suppose that's better than having a drunk chick falling all over me." He said while facing a suddenly irate Misato.

"Yeah…huh…but I think you meant Asuka." Touji jibed as the Shinji burst out laughing. Rei finally cracked a smile.

Misato placed a gentle arm on Edward's shoulder.

"I'm glad you're ok captain."

Edward seemed rather unsure of what to do. Hesitantly, he tapped her shoulder in return and headed of towards Gendo and Yui. On reaching the commander and his wife he subtly slid a tiny disk into Gendo's palm. Greeting the two, Edward returned to and sat down on the front row. As Ritsuko continued her talk about the Mecha series Edward tilted his head back and lazily looked up at he ceiling, noticing Shinji behind him.

"Psst."

"Huh"

"Hey Shinji."

"What?"

"I know what you mean, I'd have gone crazy in that room looking at that ceiling a minute longer…and I was only conscious for five minutes."

"Yeah, well you got no idea. When you've been to that place as many times as I have…well you'd want to die than having to suffer the pain of healing your wounds in that room."

Edward chuckled as Shinji reverted his attention to Dr.Akagi's speech lest Misato shout him at.

"…They recently introduced the liquid puppet master system as their standard piloting system for the Mecha's. The standard puppet master system was a system by which one of the Mecha's was designated the 'Alpha Mecha', its remotely piloted by a human and transmits orders to up to nineteen other Mecha's. During the panama incident the emitter on the Alpha Mecha malfunctioned and thus they lost control of all the Mechas. The liquid puppet master system is a revolutionary system…which is…well ahead of anything we've come up with."

Dr.Akagi finished rather shamefacedly

"Well the liquid puppet master system allows the pilot to designate the 'alpha Mecha' at will. He can interchange it between Mecha's, thus the only way for the Mecha's as a unit to fail is that each and every one of them malfunction."

"Who built the Mecha's Dr.Akagi?"

Fuyutsuki chimed in. It was obvious from his tome he knew the answer…he just wanted to steer the talk in the right direction.

"The Mecha's were created by an organization know as the Phoenix Corporation. We don't know to much about the industry except that it was one of the Manus' more prized possessions. It was started by Victor Von Drake in Germany and was continued by his son in law Ferdinand Von Drake…they were both fairly high-ranking men in the Manus power grid. Victor being part of German nobility."

The talk went on for a few more minutes until Yui decided to call it a day. As they all left prepared for day after tomorrows mission, they had some work ahead of them. After most of them had moved out of the room Gendo ordered Ritsuko to remain behind.

The scientist was fairly unsure of what the commander wanted, when he approached her, his orders were fairly…bizarre.

"Dr.Akagi, I want you to hack the SEELE databanks with the MAGI system. Send all the information to my console."

* * *

"The rebirth program will take flight soon, I hope father, that you will ensure that it does fly our way."

Nodding the bishop from Asia bowed his head and left the circle. Now it was only father Fiorenzo and father Pollock. Now the real business would be discussed.

"Father Pollock, I hope all is going well."

"Yes father, we have received Mr. Smith's shipment of the new Mecha's fitted with the LPM system. We shall accomplish the four remaining tasks with distinction."

"I do hope so father." Fiorenzo spat rather bitterly.

"Father Tao can only do so much for us in rebirth."

Pollock nodded.

"So, how goes the Verus Deus project Moeketsi?"

"We need to clear rebirth first."

"Yes…and how goes the gnarus res project."

Father Pollock knew where this was going.

"We have five of the three gnarus are with us, we only need the last…and for that."

"I know father Pollock. We need re-birth to swing our way…so you see how imperative it is to succeed at these tasks before us…now go…I already have a plan to trip up those sinners at NERV."

Sorry for the long wait…I was just out all the time…now things are hopefully going to get really interesting. Though I'm quite sure most of you found this chapter a real drag…I enjoy filling in historical backgrounds of these guys…it gives everything more depth…lets see.

* * *

TO THE CRITICS

THE fifth:

Don't worry…everyone gets a small dilemma…its psychopathic mental tendencies for all!!!!!!!! I haven't re-read this chapter for errors so be gentle.

Ginny:

Erm…well Edward isn't the same as that other guy…he's completely different…he just looks the same. Read chapter six again…there's a big hint at the fact that the're two different people entirely


	7. Focus Pt1

**Chapter 7: Focus pt.1**

"Thank you"

The commander muttered as he took the folder from a NERV technician…but poor little Kaede Agano seemed far from thanked as she hastily retreated from the commander back to her station.

Sighing, Gendo Ikari continued to walk up towards his command center…once a monster always a monster no…

His recent actions were creating a dent on his older visage, but…

Looking at the contents of the folder he couldn't help but be slightly amazed. He'd seen its contents before, but it always seemed to shock any who saw it. The A.T. field ratings of the subject were absolutely off the charts, why, the field power was almost one third of an angel's.

Reaching the observation level of NERV's testing chamber he began to move towards his desk beside the large viewing window. The testing chamber was almost an exact replica of the chamber in the Geofront…built merely for nostalgic purposes, oh yes and perhaps for efficiency to.

"Good morning Fuyutsuki, I-uh"

Gendo suddenly took a step back, his glasses almost falling off in shock. There, on his desk, sat Yui Ikari, her eyes staring into the chamber in mock concentration…her fingers interlocked before her face.

"Uh…Y-Yui."

Hearing his quivering voice caused Yui to loose all self-control she had, surrendering her posture the woman fell to the floor…doubled over in laughter.

"Aha…oh you should hear your self dear."

Even Fuyutsuki was having trouble containing the giggles…though if he had laughed, he would have done it with dignity…of course.

"T-that wasn't funny Yui."

Gendo hesitantly sat down behind his desk and readied for the experiment as Yui got up and caught her breath. Slowly the support staff around them began to return to their duties…such bizarre happenings were becoming more and more frequent around the commander.

Calming down Gendo's hands began to snake their way towards each other above the desk. Once again catching Yui's glances the commander of NERV stopped dead in his tracks. Recovering, Gendo clapped his hands together instead and announced to the room in a flourish.

"Begin the experiment!!!!"

As the technicians began to scurry about Yui bent low and whispered into Gendo's ear,

"Do you really think this is necessary dear?"

_'S2 engine within stable levels.' _

"You've see the files Yui, this is just proving my point."

_'Eva uplink online…dummy plug intelligence levels set at low.'_

"But what if you're wrong."

_'Ready to input orders.'_

"I won't be wrong, even then…he agreed to go through with it."

"Oh I don't know dear."

"Wh-"

"HEY!!!! GENDO!!!! I mean, COMMANDER!!!!!"

I voice echoed up from the bottom of the test chamber.

"I think I'm having second thoughts about this whole thing!!!"

Edward screamed at the roof of the massive white chamber. In front of him towered a massive form of an A.P Eva or Automotive piloting Eva…an Eva rifle in hand. Behind him was the giant one-way glass that took up an entire wall of the chamber. It was mirrored on one side as to conserve heat. On the other side were various viewing stations were data for the tests were collected. Edward was well aware that Gendo usually sat at his station at the very top level.

"Hey…this is not cool. If I wanted to get shot at by giant soul sucking robots…hey I'd piss Misato of or something…I don't know."

"Don't worry Edward…you'll be fine."

Yui's voice boomed over the chambers PA system, clearly she'd lost the argument to Gendo.

"Prepare of testing."

An all to familiar, gruff voice echoed over the PA this time.

"Hey come on Gendo…just think this through."

Edward rambled as the A.P Eva prepared to fire.

"Fire in three"

"Gendo."

"…two."

"Hey are you listening."

"…one."

"GENDO!!!!"

"Fire."

"Oh bugger this is gonna sting…"

BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

Bullets ripped the air as they flew all around a crouching Edward, many hitting the glass behind.

Above, the test crew present all stuck to the glass in awe as they gazed upon the sight of a man cowering before a trigger happy Eva…cowering yes, but injured no.

Even Yui and Deputy commander Fuyutsuki walked over to the glass to have a better view, their worry-laden frames in stark contrast to that of Gendo's who sat quietly behind his desk, not even looking up to see he startled reactions of the others…in fact he was concentrating on something entirely different.

Re-reading the letter once more, he hit the enter button, it was the second one he was sending this morning. After a few minutes he got the conformation he was awaiting.

_Message sent to edvalcosNER- _

was startled out of his concentration when he heard the technicians all let out gasps and low screams. Far below Edward slowly turned to face the glass, his head slowly looking up towards the others. As he did he felt a bullet hit the mark…he crumpled to the floor as blood flew everywhere…

* * *

"…yes and good day to you." 

The lanky figure pocketed the pack of cigarettes and walked towards the train station, it had been awhile since he used his Japanese.

_'…this is the final call for train number 1406, from Tokyo-3 to Osak…'_

The man stood on the platform wearing a hat and a tweed jacket which covered any of his face and arms. With a slight air of uncertainty the man checked his watch one last time. Finally throwing caution to the wind, Hector William Fitzgerald boarded the waiting train. The walk down the center isle was easy enough; most of the passengers had already taken their seats. Looking at his ticket again, he sat down in his designated seat that was in the last coach…it lay completely deserted but for two men. He was relieved to see that there was already someone sitting opposite him.

Not even acknowledging the others presence, hector went on to gaze blankly out of the window at the Tokyo station. The man opposite him appeared to be reading a paper…uncaring for his presence in return.

With a gentle lurch, the train slowly pulled out of the station…steadily gaining speed as the outskirts of Tokyo-3 now whizzed by.

Feeling a little more comfortable, Hector now began to stare blatantly at the man opposite him…waiting for some response.

"You know, that's rather rude."

Hector almost jumped at hearing the slick British accent. The shocking thing was that it had come from the man sitting in the chair behind him, the one sharing a backrest.

"You startled me."

Hector replied without turning to look upon the speaker, his accent American.

"Do you have any cigarettes?"

The voice spoke once again.

"Huh…not this."

Hector was far to exasperated to play games…so he reluctantly pulled out the pre-specified pack and handed it over.

"Those are prohibited in the train you know."

"Yes…"

The British voice paused as the man checked for the right brand.

"Yes, but since when have we cared for rules."

Hector relaxed a little after hearing the final line.

"Don't you think all this secrecy is a bit much?"

"Eh, you know how it is Bill, Gendo doesn't want the Manus getting event the slightest breeze about what were up to."

"Sure Edward, whatever…why the hell did he call me here?"

"Yeah, I got his message just this morning…at the time I was on my way to the medical wing."

"Medical wing, you Ok man?"

The American sounded concerned…mildly.

"It was nothing, got a pretty deep cut just below my lung…hit me right in the stomach."

"What?"

"Steel rod…while I was trying to jump a low fence."

"A low fence huh."

"Yeah."

But Hector knew all to well about the ways of politely telling people 'none of your fucking business', understanding Edward, Hector chose not to pursue the subject.

"So, why am I here?"

His voice carried a light hue of apprehension. Edward too let out a deep sigh before answering.

"You know why Bill."

Hector had guessed as much.

"Rebirth huh?"

"Yeah…"

He could tell Edward was scratching his head as he answered…

"So getting do-"

"Wait Edward…you're gonna answer a few questions first before you want anything from me."

There was a pause…

"Yeah sure, whatever you want…"

"Ok…firstly, who the fuck is that?"

Even with his back turned Hector could tell the question had disarmed him. Finally he realized that Hector was referring to the man sitting opposite him.

"Oh him, he's section two…yeah and he can't understand English the poor guy. So we can talk as much as we want."

"Right, and as for my second question…what the fuck were you doin' up in Alaska. Chris was a good friend of mine."

Abandoning all attempts at secrecy, Edward rose from his chair and came to sit down right beside hector, a childish smile upon his face.

"Whatever are you talking about Bill…"

"Stop fuckin' around Edward, Chris was livid after what happened."

"What…I paid the man."

"I'm not talking about the money…I'm talking about those terrorists that attacked the place Edward…or as Chris referred to you…Mr. Smith."

Edward didn't say anything, he continued to stare blankly at the passing Japanese landscape as it whizzed by…the childhood pseudonym brought back stirring memories…

"Ed-"

"Oooooooh, those terrorists…"

Edward finally spoke as if coming out of a trance.

"Yes Edward…'those' terrorists."

"Well, if you check the reports you'll see that there were no fatalities and minimum casualties."

"That's not the point Edward…you're twenty for god's sake…and here you are making deals with freggin' terrorists. You're not mature enough for thi-"

"I've seen enough in my life…"

Edward's once friendly hyper energetic tone was gone. The words had been delivered with an unforgiving finality…the image of a woman cowering beneath a man flashed across Valcos' mind as it had done so often.

"I think we should discuss rebirth Bill…"

"Y-yeah…sure man whatever you want."

Hector quickly snapped back to attention at hearing Edwards's softer tone return slowly.

"Can you swing it our way?"

Hector sighed,

"All Gendo wants from me is-"

"Yeah."

"It's going to be really hard, you're asking a lot from one man."

"Look Gendo's already pulling some pretty high strings-"

"But you're up against the Manus man, their reach goes far…who knows how many people with my power they've already roped in."

"I know Bill, I can understand the dangers of getting in the Manus' way…but we have to stop these bastards."

'_The train will be arriving in Osaka shortly please gather your bel…'_

"But why…what do you have against them. They have one project left before rebirth moves to stage two…they've completed all their other projects with flying colors."

The train began to grind to a halt.

"What is so important about the second stage of rebirth…what, why is it so imperative that it goes your way???"

By now Edward had risen from his seat and was already making for the door, the hefty section two man had risen to follow. Edward turned to face Hector Fitzgerald one last time.

"Secrets…secrets Bill. Se ya around old man."

"Yeah…"

Hector spoke while still sitting in his seat…more to himself than to an already departed Edward.

"See you around kid…see you around."

* * *

sorry for the short chapter…sorry for the long wait….my college has begun and chapters are going to be many but far between…and probably a lot shorter…this was a little to oc know but the other characters will come in part 2 


	8. Focus Pt2

**Focus Pt.2**

"…and then I told her that getting married was a big mistake and see wh-"

"Ok Ritsuko…stop evading my questions…where are you taking me…"

"Shh"

The NERV head technical scientist pushed Misato into an empty janitors closet to ensure privacy….

"Come on Misato…stop complaining."

"What do you mean….you just suddenly tell me that you need to show me something and I'm just supposed to come along."

"Look I told you this will be worth you're while…"

"Yeah we-"

But Misato was prevented from finishing her sentence by a head poking around the now re-opened door…

"Oh sorry…"

The head spoke on noticing the two inside.

"I do hope I'm interrupting something…"

His grin was uncontainable…

"Edward!!!"

Misato charged out of the closet pushing the young captain outside, a wide grin across her face as well.

"You're all right, I heard you took a rather nasty blow this morning?"

Edward's smile faltered slightly…

"Erm yeah…you know how these tests can get…"

"I heard you got injured while testing the heavy weapons for the AP Eva…"

"Yeah, something like that…but I'm fine now…all patched up…now on to more important things…"

Edward went on before Misato or Ritsuko could pester him further about his injuries.

"You'll have to take care of the synch tests this afternoon I-"

"Its all right Edward, we cancelled the tests for today…you go home and rest…"

"N-no its not that…"

Edward quickly added

"I need to go meet an old friend of mine…Gendo's orders."

Edward finished before Misato could complain. Without another word, he walked away towards the employee parking leaving Misato and Ritsuko alone in the hallway once again.

"Either he's really lucky…or."

"Yeah…"

Misato added rather absentmindedly before being dragged down the hall once again by Ritsuko, this time though she decided not to put up a fight…her thoughts elsewhere. Diving down another passage the two finally entered a small room usually used by the technical maintenance staff. Inside, huddled about two computer workstations and a desk were first lieutenants Shigeru Aoba, Maya Ibuki and Makoto Hyuga.

On acknowledging each other's presence Misato found herself seated in front of a computer screen surrounded by the other four. The screen was completely blank save for a small folder labeled

2002 A.D

"You called me here for this?"

Misato found it hard to keep the annoyed tone out of her voice.

"Come on now…"

Misato stared at Ritsuko for a long time before slumping her shoulders in submission.

"Good, well I think Hyuga should start of…it was you're find after all."

"Um…ya…well."

Hyuga shakily stood up, clearly caught unaware by Ritsuko…

"Well yes, as you remember, a few months ago the a hotel in Panama in which we were residing was attacked by terrorists…"

Misato nodded,

"Erm yes, well so we've been doing some pretty deep searching to find whoever was behind the attack."

Misato suddenly perked up, now this was news she was eager to hear.

"As you could expect, our search turned up hundreds of hits…none of them even remotely related to the panama incident…"

"So??"

"Erm…well, we decided to broaden our search."

Hyuga said with a slight grin…

"We began hacking the panama governments mainframes to get to the bottom of the problem."

"You w-"

"I authorized it Misato, and don't worry it was worth it."

Misato sat back into her chair, though still not thoroughly convinced she continued to hear Hyuga out.

"Even the government's files shed no light on the matter what so ever, so I decided to tap into the next best pool of information on panama…the United Sates mainframes, the search yielded…interesting results."

Misato was now paying very close attention to Hyuga's words.

"The search gave us nothing on the panama attack, but I did find a file on an attack on a U.S military outpost in Alaska, the attack happened on the same day as the Panama incident and it never turned up on any of the normal searches."

Hyuga went on, it seemed they were coming closer to the point.

"So, just out of curiosity, I decided to look into the report…an attack in Alaska is rather odd. The attack itself was…well really weird as well. No human casualties were suffered, the only thing that was hit was the outpost mainframe."

"I'll take it from here Hyuga."

Ritsuko interjected and took the first lieutenants place stepping in front of Misato.

"The mainframe acted as a databank for a U.S satellite IC102, Gendo had asked me to hack the entire MAGI network in any case, so I used MAGI to hack the main control station for the satellite in east Florida to find out what the mainframe in Alaska was hiding. It seems that the last operation that the satellite performed was to take pictures of the northern Russian sea borders. All the pictures that were taken were destroyed with the Alaskan mainframe, but I did get all the co-ordinates of the pictures."

"Ritsuko, what does this have to do with the atta-"

"Just listen Misato it has nothing to do with the attack…but the end is far more interesting"

Misato submitted once again.

"The surveillance mission was carried out by Major Roland Turner and clearance was given by Hector William Fitzgerald the director of the UN sub office in the U.S. All the pictures were ordinary surveillance photos except for one which seemed a little out of place, it was a picture of the central part of the arctic."

"So…I mean its strange…but what's so groundbreaking about that."

"Well Misato, all you have to do is remember what that father Pollock of the Manus told us on the day of the Panama project."

It took only seconds for realization to dawn on Misato…

'…_charities to Alaska and the Arctic…'_

"That's right."

Was the response to Misato's expression.

"I used MAGI again to check for any incidents in Alaska and this is what I dug out of the SEELE databank no less."

Misato saw Dr.Akagi click on the so far unmentioned file on the screen; there within it was yet another folder, it read…

_Arctic incident_

"And." Misato added,

"It doesn't go any further, it just says this…"

Ritsuko once again clicked on the file, all that appeared was a small paragraph of writing, it seemed messy and badly written.

_On March 24th 2002 A.D the harmonizing experiment on subject T.G in SEELE outpost 77 encountered technical difficulties resulting in the death of all five scientists and two junior members of the technical staff posted there. Emergency quarantine measures were taken, sadly there were no survivors._

What followed was something that seemed to be bad poetry.

_Six Came to bless the child _

_Each in turn did speak_

_Speak a word of freedom_

_To spread his folded wings_

_All did speak but one…_

_And his words forever _

_Are written on her science _

The garbled poetry didn't bother Misato as much as the final line of the on the screen.

_Among the dead was head scientist Mrs. Irene Valcos…_

* * *

"I can't believe this…we're eighteen, there's no school, our synch tests have been cancelled…and we have nothing to do, what kind of a pathetic life is this."

"ooh…devil girl's getting all wound up because she can't find any souls to crush…"

"One more word Kensuke and your soul isn't the only thing ill crush."

The bespectacled adolescent took smiled at Asuka and went back to staring at the cars passing bye, he seemed especially interested in a black BMW parked on the other side of the road, It was rare to see such an expensive car in this, one of Tokyo's fairly 'shady-er' areas. But better living as it were was just down the road.

The four Eva pilots plus Hikari and Kensuke had been wandering around downtown Neo-Tokyo having nothing better to occupy their time.

The group had stopped down the road to one of Tokyo's larger malls wondering whether it was worth entering or not.

"We'll we could always watch a movie…"

"Ah yes Shinji, we could immerse ourselves in the magic of the big screen, a fantastic world where completely fabricated and imaginary worlds become almost a reality."

The air around Touji could almost have reeked of drama as Rei gave him a slightly saddened and pensive look…

"Ah we've seen all of the good ones anyway…I'm in no mood to watch crap."

Asuka's shoulders slumped as she saw no hopes of entertainment heading there way…

"You guys are so booooooring, I can't believe I hang out with you morons…"

"Erm we could go for dinner, I'm pretty hungry…"

Asuka gave her best friend a weird look, half said 'what the hell' and the other warned 'oh don't you do it.'

"Hikari it's only seven, no one has dinner no-"

"Hey Touji, you wanna come find something to eat."

Touji looked around nervously scratching his head, as Asuka's jaw remained open in mid interrupted sentence. Finally taking the bull by the horns…

"Sure Hikari, whatever…but not in there, lets find a quieter place."

"hm"

With that, and without offering invitation to anyone else, the two headed off down the street towards a small side street full of smaller more 'homely' shops. Before turning in Hikari gave Asuka an apologetic smile…Asuka who was shaking her head from side to side as slowly but with as much intensity as was possible.

"What-the-hell-is-wrong-with-that-woman."

Asuka groaned as the others seemed to ignore her. Shinji was trying to stay as far away from this conversation as possible, Rei stared blankly at the looming mall down the road, her mind racing through her own memories. Kensuke was busy with the decision of 'whether to cross the road and touch the shiny car or not'.

For a long time there after, all of them tried to busy themselves with something…sadly Asuka and Shinji were not as successful as the other two

Staring around at the others one last time Asuka glanced back towards where Hikari disappeared almost longingly.

"Uhhhh…great now even I'm hungry, come on baka, these two seem to be busy in their own worlds, lets grab a bite somewhere."

Asuka stormed of past Shinji away from the alley of shops Hikari and Touji went down and headed in the direction of the mall…clearly expecting a completely baffled Shinji to follow.

"Err right Asuka…ermm you guys wanna c-come along"

Shinji added after taking a few steps behind Asuka

"Ahh BAKA you're so frustrating."

Asuka ranted as Kensuka continued to stare at the car. Shinji though stopped to wait for the two to catch up as the red head went on…grumbling under her breath.

"Hey there pretty girl…where you goin on a night like this."

Kensuke turned his gaze away from the car to see a car pull up next to Asuka and a tall gangly man step out of the driver's seat."

"Get out of my face moron, hey Shinji!! Be a man as help me out here."

The statement wasn't plea for help or anything, far from it actually; it was merely Asuka bashing Shinji once again.

"Erm what should I d-do Asuka."

Asuka groaned as the man now tried to grab her arm.

"Hey let go of me you fat pig…you're not worth my time."

"Oh but I'm sure you're gonna be worth every second of mine."

The man said brandishing a switchblade from his pocket.

"Heh" Asuka retorted, "You don't scare me."

But much of her cocky bite seemed to have disappeared from her voice.

* * *

"You know Touji, I've had a crush on you for a while."

Touji nearly chocked on his cool blue drink…but he didn't let anyone else notice. The two had picked a nice small café at the end of the street and had been discussing things like school and life after the third impact…now it was time to drop the bomb he guessed…so he decided to play it cool.

"Uh huh."

O.K not the coolest thing to say, but…

"But I didn't know what to say, and well you kept dating those other girls."

"Yeah…but you dated some guys to…h-how, w-what was I supposed to do…I bet it was Soryu, musta told you to stay away from me huh."

Touji said with a victorious look on his face.

"Actually no…she was on…well 'our' side I guess, why do you think she gave you so much flack for you girlfriends."

"Oh"

Touji's victorious expression crumbled under his sudden acceptance of a slow growing respect for the German he'd always had, but always shunned.

"But, I'm not dating anyone now…"

Touji let the sentence trail off…it was the worst line he'd ever heard…but he' doubted whether Hikari cared.

"S-so you think we should start going out."

"Yeah…definitely."

An odd silence ensued while the waiter served their main course. Hadn't it been easier than this with the other girls…but Touji couldn't really remember.

"So how long have you liked me for?"

Touji spoke trying to still the 'dragon of awkwardness' as anyone too creative would dare to call it.

"Oh, I was pretty sure since the time you got injured when Eva 03 got destroyed by the dummy plug. How is your leg now anyway?"

"Oh its fine its just…"

Unconsciously massaging his synthetic leg Touji jumped on the change of topic, the rest of the night played out much in the same awkward yet peacefully amusing manner…a sharp contrast to what their friend's were experiencing.

* * *

"Hey let go of me."

"…and none of you hero's try a thing you hear."

The man waved the knife in front of Kensuke, Rei and Shinji as he attempted to push a struggling Asuka into his car. After successfully throwing her into the back seat, the man was about get inside himself when Asuka saw him suddenly stare in the other's direction with a look of confusion and fear.

Asuka looked out through the rear windscreen with a surprised smile across her face half expecting to see Shinji attempting some act of…well something. But of course, the others were still standing were they were, each turning around to see what the fat man saw.

There moving towards the car with mechanically efficient speed was a man, of average height and medium slicked back blonde hair and a face that was distinctly European…a silenced pistol pointed straight at the fat man.

"Get a way from car."

The blonde ordered from a distance in slightly broken Japanese. The fat man hastily complied, and Asuka got out of the car immediately. Seeing that she was safely back with her friends he continued to speak walking right up to the man.

"Now, get in car and go."

The man once again complied. As he tore of into the distance the blonde took casual aim and took a solitary shot taking of the guy's number plate causing him to screech and swerve in panic. Smiling to himself, he bid the baffled children good night and returned to the black BMW parked a ways behind them. Once in the front passenger seat, the car drove off down the road with its rear tinted windows now rolled down.

As Asuka assaulted Shinji with insults and he in tern retorted with feeble apologies, as Kensuke still gawked at the passing car, only Rei, who till then had been in quiet introspection bothered to notice the man sitting in the back staring back at them.

He had short well-combed hair, slightly dark brown skin, a black power suit and a shallow smirk, which altogether, Rei had never seen before…yet seemed distantly familiar.

* * *

The images before them looked nothing like the arctic that they'd seen in national geographic. The earth seemed charred and warped…almost hellish.

"So we behold the very seed of all this chaos."

"hmm"

Gendo mumbled his silent agreement to Fuyutsuki's words.

"Rebirth shall enter stage two soon."

"Whatever its result…the backlash will be violent."

"It seems it shall come down to a savage race to the North Pole, eh Ikari"

"It is where the infernal mess started, and the frigid roof of the world is where it shall end."

The two and Yui were at Gendo's desk looking at images Edward had handed the commander some time ago.

"I'm still curious as to how he got these images dear."

Gendo filled Yui in on Edward's initial string pulling to acquire the images…but the story went on.

"Just prior to the attack, we had the package delivered anonymously to the residence of a NERV employee."

Now Fuyutsuki continued.

"If you remember, at the time of the Panama project, there was a break-in in Misato's residence."

"That was."

"Yes Edward returned hastily to Japan and stole the package from her house before anyone really knew that it had been delivered there. Since Misato's residence lies outside the NERV compound no one could ever join the dots."

"But what was his alibi and how did he break in, the report said nothing was broken or stolen…that's why no one ever bothered afterwards."

"That's exactly the point, Edward's alibi was that he was filing progress reports in Washington…actually those reports have my signature on them. As for breaking in, him and Misato switched rooms during their stay and the hotel there allowed the NERV id cards to double up as keycards. So Edward had her card…he used it and returned to Panama and switched them back."

Yui sighed, none of them…including Gendo were comfortable with such secrecy…especially from their own people…but, she thought, as she stared at the computer screen.

'_If any of them knew what was up there…'_

* * *

OOOOOOHHHH boy its been a long time…but we are getting there. s-l-o-w-l-y.

and if you read death pt 1 you'll see that it was revealed then and there that the cards double up as keys…

To the fifth:

Well this chapter is no medical anti lice shampoo…but I promise by the end of the story you wont be scratching your head…or you will in which case ive failed and were going to burn burn I say….burn for an etern- anyway thank you for the reviews…keep them comin…

Ginny…

what to say…im blank so yeah…but there was a little flash into the very weird and soon to be revealed past of the ever mysterious Edward Valcos.


	9. The Calm before

_Hey look...an elephant, no wait that looks more like a butter fl-_

Shinji's thoughts were-much like his current mode of transport-on auto pilot. But the view just wasn't the same when trying to peer around someone and out the window...well thats what he got for sitting next to Asuka...an isle seat. Desperately he tried to distract his mind from the more barbed thoughts that had been floating about his brain. But just like in the big bad real world, the more you tried to run from something the faster it came back to smack you in the face.

Images of his parents began to dance about the clouds beyond Asuka's shoulder. It wasn't just his parents that were bothering him...the idea that he was too scared to take a stand on weather to return to them or not acted like a giant metaphorical usher, politely opening the door for his mind so it could see more of Shinji's faults in startling quality.

_'Your a coward...you'll never take a stand on anything...however much you try to change...however out going you try to become...however many friends you make...you'll still run from everything the minute you sense trouble...no wonder she'll never even look at you'_

Shinji shifted slightly in his seat...not daring to look at the girl on his left, why did his mind have to screw him over like this every step he took...he wished his own subconscious would just leave him alone...

_'...there i go again, i don't even want to solve the problem, i don't want it to bother me...but im to weak to get it out of the way...so...so i run away.'_

Shinji's painfully stumbled upon a conversation he'd heard as they were reaching the airport...the girl seemed to be fairly troubled...

_'This world is strange no Ikari-kun...so many obligations...to protect...to destroy...to love...all constructs of our own making, what do the trees care for rising oil prices...what does the earth care for the fear of isolation...for the warmth of embrace. We humans have created almost another reality upon this one of rock and stone...a reality which i find no place in for my self...'_

Shinji stared blankly back at her...what should he say...

'_Relax Rei...humanity is trapped in its own reality...i'd rather not be a part of it.'_

Edward chimed in, hurriedly breaking away from a prolonged Asuka monologue of her recent achievements that_ he_ was trapped in...

_'But a reality humanity must face if it is to understand itself and the world...'_

Edward didn't have much to say to this...

The light sound of chatter was the lifeline Shinji used to pull his mind out of his troubling train of thought, peering around the leer jet he saw Misato, Dr.Akagi, Maya and Hyuga huddled around a small table...deep in conversation.

"...I just don't get it...the pieces just don't fit..."

"Maybe they're not meant to fit..."

Ritsuko tried to put Misato at ease,but the look she received from the major said it all.

"I'm not ready to believe that just yet...its like there is a pattern but its hidden by a freggin thin veil...and it pisses me off, I'm starting from the beginning again..."

And before anyone could stop her, she was off again...

"We have two terrorist attacks...one directed at the children, one which destroyed the mainframes-and only the mainframes-of a U.S surveillance outpost in Alaska. Both these happened on the same day."

She gave a pause as everyone around just nodded...

"Ok...now can we say that the same people were behind the two attacks..."

"There is nothing to suggest that."

Hyuga replied.

"Right...anyway the guys that attacked us seemed too professional. Leave that aside...lets get down to the Manus. The Alaskan outpost stored images of the northern borders of Russia and a solitary picture of the arctic...and both Alaska and the Arctic were places mentioned by Father Pollock, so can we assume that the attack on the outpost was Manus driven?"

The others nodded their heads,this seemed all to logical. A few seats down the plane, Edward-feigning sleep-shifted uncomfortably, the attack had of course been carried out by him...on Gendo's orders no less. No one was to know that NERV was interested in the frigid lands of the north pole...not even some of its own members. Perhaps Gendo would spill the beans after re-birth reached phase two...

_'It all hinges on rebirth'_

"Well there's definitely something up there..."

Maya trudged on...

"Yeah..."

Thoughts of the Alaskan incident raced through Misato's mind...thoughts of Edward's mother who lost her life there . Misato had done some checking and had found all the evidence she needed...though many of the reports seemed poorly written and badly edited...their information was just the same...Dr.Irene Valcos married to a Francis Valcos...a man who had held a fairly high post in SEELE. The report said that they had had only one son...What more did she need.

"Its pointless...there are too many dead ends and all we keep doing is running into them...its pointless, why are we trying to figure out some obscure plan of the Manus. Let the incident in panama go and lets move on to more pressing matters...like the operation at hand."

Though detrimental to Misato's little game of 'Sherlock Homes', Ritsuko's calm outburst was right on the money...there were far worse things to be worrying about.

The once petty Fujian uprising had now evolved into a small scale war. The Republic of China continued to boycott any talks with the Peoples Republic all the while pumping exorbitant amounts of funds into the terrorists bank accounts. The result, the city of Shanghai had been besieged and was now almost completely under separatist control. The UN didn't have the evidence to impose any kinds of sanctions upon the Republic of China thus they opted for a more direct approach...NERV had been called in to assist the UN peace keeping force as they tried to force the alleged 'rebels' out of the now rubbled city.

* * *

The private jet landed on a makeshift emergency runway twenty miles from Shanghai, from there the NERV crew took a bus flanked by an armored convoy fourteen miles to the temporary base of operations for the UN forces. The Evas had already arrived and were prepped and ready for action.

"Eh...whats the point, there's still no challenge..."

Asuka grumbled as the children followed Misato and the others across a lush green field towards a heavily defended encampment.

"I mean, these guys can't do a thing to my eva...their like inse-"

"Don't be so confident about that miss...these guys are armed to the tooth."

Shinji looked to beyond Misato to see the figure of a short well built man with a buzz cut flanked by two marines.

"Major General Goran Vlaović,UN peace Keeping force."

The man belted out in perfect Japanese as he shook Misato's hand.

"Major Misato Katsuragi, operations director NERV"

"Morning Major, welcome to camp Iris, quite the day we have in store for you, follow me please."

And with that the General turned on his heels and began briskly walking towards the base. It was then-as Shinji quietly moved towards the camp-that he heard the not so distant rumble of gunfire. Looking towards the distant sky he say hazy pillars of black smoke slowly rising into the air, blanketing what he assumed was Shanghai in a doom laden darkness.

When the children arrived they were immediately debriefed on the mission at hand...those 'insects were seeming tougher by the moment.

* * *

AN:

he...long time no...and all i come upwith is this...well times are hard and im doing my best to get stuff written...

hopefully the real chapter...i.e the big fight in Shanghai will be up within the week...but i promise you its a depressing one...

* * *


End file.
